A CEO Scorned
by EtincelleD'OR
Summary: Sequel to ACMS Péséraelle, a French medical student wakes from 5 months of PVS, making the DM act very strangely. When Kaiba must revive the 1 person who can restore her joie de vie, with the help of a talking cat, he realises where his own truly lies SxS
1. Prologue

**A CEO Scorned.**

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**Sequel to 'A Charter Mage Scorned'. Kaiba gets back to the year 2007, and immediatly turns his attention away from magic, and back to his work, not quite realising just how great his responsibilities as the Abhorsen are. Add this to the arrival 'washed-up-on-the-porch' talking cat and stalking from Pegasus, Kaiba's well, swamped, basically, and this massive destined love he's supposed to fall into doesn't help either. **

**Disclaimer: YES!!! I **_**am**_** Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh), Garth Nix (Old Kingdom Trilogy), all the members of Evanescence AND Constance M. Burge (Charmed). The cat Nina is a combination of Mogget (of the Old Kingdom Trilogy) and Salem from 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch', which I also own and I will sue you if you ever use any of them ever again. Regrettably, I do own Nina, Elizaveta (you'll find out in chappie 3), and Roberts the butler (guess who... Seto's butler). I OWN EVERYTHING I TELL YOU!!! EVERYTHING!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA...**

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**Prologue**

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"UP!!! GET UP!!!"

Why? What has happened?

"PESESHET GET UP!!!"

"Ah!" I almost shrieked, untangling myself from my bedsheets. I looked up with eyes graced with sleep and smudged eyeliner. I met a very sharp yet worried glare.

Something was wrong. But I did not know that it was so wrong that it would change my life forever.

_**How can you see into my eyes, like open doors?**_

_**Leading you down into my core,**_

_**Where I've become so numb...**_

I blinked a few times. High Priestess Isis? What is she doing up at this time? Her eyeliner too was smudged, but it looked like she had been crying, not sleeping. She was also wearing no jewellry, as if she had dressed herself as quickly as possible and her headdress and armbands were missing. Only the Millenium Tauk was precious enough to be grabbed in the little time she appeared to have had.

_**Without a soul,**_

_**My soul is sleeping somewhere cold,**_

"What is it?" I groaned, trying to sound as awake as I could.

"Get dressed and come down to the stables, NOW!!!" she bellowed.

_**Until you find it there,**_

_**And lead it back home.**_

"What is wrong?"

"NOW!!!"

_Wake me up..._

_**Wake me up inside**_

_**I**__ can't wake up..._

_**Wake me up inside**_

_Save me..._

_**Call my name and save me from the dark.**_

She hurried away down the dimly lit corridor, leaving me to pull on my dress and shoes. I practically sprinted down the many halls and flights of stairs until I reached the stables, where Isis was mounted on her horse and was holding Rê-Neferu for me. I vaulted on and took the reins, surprised at how quickly she moved off. I followed her, urging poor Rê-Neferu on with my heels. I looked over at my friend, who appeared troubled. My suspicions were confirmed my a lone tear that ran down her face and was whipped out of my sight by the oncoming wind.

_Wake me up..._

_**Bid my blood to run**_

_I can't wake up..._

_**Before I come undone**_

_Save me..._

_**Save me from the nothing I've become**_

I didn't know what was happening. Why would I be needed at such short notice? I was a physician, a swnw, why should I be needed? What was business of Isis' was highly unlikely to be any business of mine. Little did I know...

"Isis!!! What is happening?"

"It is Mahado..." she said, "He... He went to fight Bakura by himself!!!"

_**Now you know what I'm without**_

_**You just can't leave me**_

_**Breathe into me and make me real**_

_**Bring me to life...**_

"What???!!!" I gasped, my one hand flew off the rein and went to the little teardrop necklace around my neck. The charm my darling Mahado gave me. When he asked me to be his wife. Good, kind, sweet Mahado, with a nature more courteous than those of the gods themselves. I care not what sin this may place on me, for it is the truth and they should do well to remember it.

_**Bring me to life **_

_I've been living a lie, there's nothing left inside..._

I saw two more riders on their horses heading toward us noticing on closer inspection that they were High Priest Seth and Priest Karim. I noticed that they too must have gotten up in a hurry. Karim was the only one who was vaguely properly dressed, I should have thought it was because his attire was the simplest. They saw us coming and turned around, apparently giving us a lead. We followed them.

_**Bring me to life**_

I did not understand. Seth had the power to heal. So I was pretty sure that I had not been woken up for my medical expertise. No. It would be worse than that. Something was very wrong. I began to shiver. Never had I felt so alone.

_**Frozen inside without your touch,**_

_**Without your love, darling,**_

_**Only you are the life among the dead**_

We finally came to our destination - the tomb of the former Pharaoh - may his spirit rest in peace forever. I don't like tombs, or rather I always imagined that I never would. However this was an exception. We dismounted and ran inside.

I shivered even more as the coldness of the tomb hit me. The eerie silence was shattered by echoing sobs. We took a few steps further into the next chamber. Isis, Seth and Karim stopped dead. Isis' hand flew to her mouth as she too began to cry. Seth's brow was creased and his lower lip was trembling ever so slightly. I saw a lone tear run down his cheek. Karim looked much the same. Whereas they had all stopped. My feet carried me forward. The crumpled form of a girl was on the ground in front of a large Ka-tablet. Tears were pouring out of her eyes like no tomorrow.

Quite rightly so.

Because there was no tomorrow.

Not anymore.

An unbearable pain wrenched at my heart and my knees buckled under my weight. _No... Oh good Rê please no... No! _

_No! _

_No!_

_Please!!! Oh Rê please!!! You cannot do this to him please!!!! I love him so much!!! Everything was so perfect!!!_

I crawled up against the stone, feeling the surge of warmth that came from inside it. I tried to push myself closer to it, but my legs would simply not work. _Don't leave me, Mahado, please come back... I never meant any of those things I used to say to you when we were younger... I... I... I... I just did not want to seem like I was weak in front of you... But now..._

_I will come after you, Mahado..._

_**All this time I can't believe I couldn't see**_

_**Kept in the dark but you were there in front of me...**_

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_**I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems,**_

_**Got to open my eyes to everything**_

_"Où suis-je___

_**Without a thought**_

_**Without a voice**_

_**Without a soul**_

_Qu'est-ce que c'est...?_

_Je... Je me... Je me sens ... comme je me... réveillais juste... Qu'est-ce que c'est...? Un voix..."_

_**Don't let me die here**_

_**There must be something more**_

"Docteur!!! Je pense que l'équipement est en panne!!! Qu'est-ce qu'on fait?"

Men and women in whitecoats with clipboards dropped their pens in a mad dash to room seven. The nurse was glaring at the brain monitoring equipment as if it had just murdered someone.

"Elle... Elle se réveille... Mais c'est impossible!"

One doctor's eyes widened as the monitor sprang into life.

"Fermez les bouches et cherchez le défibrillateur!!! Vite!!!"

"Oui docteur..."

"Ses ondes cérébralles viennent plus vites!!!"

"Chargez vers l'haut!!!"

_**Bring me to life.**_

The doctor wiped his brow with the back of his sleeve, and the entire team looked on as one of her fingers moved.

"Bienvenue en arrière, Péséraelle."

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**WildEm: Okay, here's the French translation:**

**- Doctor, I think the equipment's broken, what do we do?**

**- She... She's waking up... but that's impossible!**

**- All of you shut up and find the defibrillator! Quick!**

**- Yes doctor.**

**- Her brain waves are getting faster...**

**- Charge to maximum!!!**

**- Welcome back, Péséraelle. **

**If there's any mistake, please please tell me because I just can't stand them, and I reckon there are some, so please, help me!!! **

**Just a brief overview - If you guys didn't get the bit where it changes to modern day, it's where the pound signs are. I'm gonna let you guess what happened to Peseshet. But basically, she's been taken forward in time. Her reincarnation, French Péséraelle, has been in Persistant Vegetative State for five months and was left like that after a giant car accident. Peseshet wakes up as Péséraelle with only half a real memory and only Ancient Egyptian as a language. I'll explain the rest in later chappies lol!**

**Seto: WildEm was already brainstormed a fic about Peseshet's and Mahado's background, it's called 'A Call to Arms', read it now!!!**

**WildEm: Who gave you permission to speak?**

**Seto: Just to fill you in on what that might include and hence understand this pathetic excuse for a prologue, basically, Peseshet and Mahado grew up together - she's a year younger than him - and they were rivals in just about everything. So they disliked each other. Blah blah blah.**

**WildEm: Okay, that's it I'm getting a new bishie... **


	2. Damn Hormones!

**A CEO Scorned...**

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**Sequel to 'A Charter Mage Scorned'. Kaiba gets back to the year 2007, and immediatly turns his attention away from magic, and back to his work, not quite realising just how great his responsibilities as the Abhorsen are. Add this to the arrival 'washed-up-on-the-porch' talking cat and stalking from Pegasus, Kaiba's well, swamped, basically, and this massive destined love he's supposed to fall into doesn't help either. **

**Disclaimer: YES!!! I **_**am**_** Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh), Garth Nix (Old Kingdom Trilogy), AND Constance M. Burge (Charmed). The cat Nina is a combination of Mogget (of the Old Kingdom Trilogy) and Salem from 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch', which I also own and I will sue you if you ever use any of them ever again. Regrettably, I do own Nina, Serena (who is the former Abhorsen), Elizaveta (you'll find out in chappie 3), and Roberts the butler (guess who... Seto's butler). I OWN EVERYTHING I TELL YOU!!! EVERYTHING!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA...**

**Seto: Uh, maybe you overdid it there.**

**WildEm: Why are you even here?**

**Seto: ...**

**WildEm: Silence mortal!!! Before I submit you to the impending chapter one of doom!!!**

**Seto: NOOOO!!! Not the impending chapter one of doom!!!**

**WildEm: He has a thing about first chapters. Usually because he ends up being knocked to the floor by one of the girls, or having a random girl turn up at his house claiming to be Mokuba's new babysitter, with whom he then falls in love with. Well, I think my attempt is vaguely original. If you don't know what's going on, read the prequel!!! Or chapter nine onwards, the first eight are pretty Seth-centric. SETH RULES!!! YAY!!! **This chapter contains SxS action. I'll tell you guys at the beginning if there is.

**Seto: I feel unloved.**

**WildEm: Took you a while to catch on didn't it? (sighs) Oh well, let's see what my mashed-up revision-sick brain came up with. By the way, the quadratic formula is X equals minus B plus or minus the square root of B squared minus four times A times C all over two A... **

**Seto: Roll camera! Quick!!!**

"speech"

_"thoughts"_

_"telephone conversation"_

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**Damn hormones!**

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_"Mr. Kaiba sir?"_

"What?"

_"There is a Miss Wheeler asking to see you, shall I send her away?"_

"Send her up."

_"Why did I say that?"_

The receptionist stared at the phone-receiver blankly, wondering if her boss was feeling alright, but nonetheless obeyed without question, and a few minutes later there was a knock on the door of Seto's office. It had been a week since he had been catapulted into Ancient Egypt, where he had learned a little more about himself than he had wanted to. It wasn't the others at fault anymore. He couldn't just stand on the sidelines and watch Yugi and co. listen to Ishizu about some pathetic magic drabble. He couldn't exclude himself anymore, it was even more a part of him than it was of them. It was around him, it was inside him. It was him. And it drove him to a madness that was at times impossible to control. He had been wrong. His hands were clenched in fists so tightly that his knuckles were white going on blue, but he didn't care. They had bested him. And he wanted so dearly to make them pay for it. He would gladly crush each one of them underneath his heel and laugh coldly as he watched them squirm and writhe. Counting to ten was an understatement.

_"1... 2... 10... Argh!!! It doesn't work!!!"_

With school on top of magic and work, it all added up to stress. He had clocked the fact that exam marks and Charter marks didn't mix.

He grabbed the remote control for the flat-screen plasma TV that suspended from the ceiling, briefly noting the screen showing a cross-section on someone's head as shown on an MRI scan, the words Post Vegatative State written on a banner across the bottom. What was this? Science Channel? He pressed down visciously on the 'standby' button and slammed the buttons down on the table.

"Come in." he called, the doorknob groaned and the latch drew back, and the door swung open. A beautiful girl with long fiery redhair and hazel eyes, smiled, slid around the door, and closed it behind her.

"Hi." she said brightly, and Seto lifted his fingers off the keyboard of his computer to stop himself from slurring the typing on his stock order. Through some instantaneous insanity, he had effectively saved her life - an action he had severely regretted since - and since, he had felt a vile, irritating, sickening feeling devour the centre of his being, but he had tried to push it away and block it, but he couldn't. Even if it _was_ written in the stars, he didn't want to love her, he didn't want to, he didn't want to, yet Destiny decreed that his punishment for his coldness was to feel true love. She was nothing but an annoyance, a very captivating annoyance...

_"Stop it!!!"_

"What are you doing here?"

She wrung her hands. He frowned sadistically - she was dithering too. "I didn't thank you properly for saving me in Egypt." she said, shrugging, "I was wondering if I could, y'know, help with anything here?" Seto sat back in his chair as if he were a computer conducting a scan on her. Unlike the rest of her family -cough- Joey -cough- he had to admit, she had above mediocre intelligence.

"You can file these for me, that cabinet over there." he said, pointing to a massive and quite intimidating filing cabinet on the other side of the office. Serenity's eyes widened, there was a stack of files at least three feet high piled on the floor next to Seto's desk.

"Wow." she said, picking up as many as she could carry and taking them across the room. Seto smirked, he hadn't been looking forward to doing those, and it was particularly annoying because the names were on the inside covers. She started filing, "So, uh, how've you been?"

"Stressed."

"And um... how's the magic stuff going?" she asked sheepishly.

"It's not." he said firmly, not taking his attention away from his computer screen. He had briefly experimented with various powers, but he was sooner die than admit it.

"I guess technology and magic don't mix." She said, continuing filing, and all was silent until she was about three quarters of the way through them. She picked up another...

"That one goes in the bottom draw under T's between 'Thompson' and 'Tuppen', about a third of the way through three files behind the divider watch out for papercuts." he said robotically, and she looked up at him in confusion.

Shit.

He had not meant to say that. It had, sort of, slipped out... He sat there wide eyed, still staring at the screen and he felt his jaw set.

"What?" she said, opening the cover of the file to reveal that the name said 'Trott'. She opened the draw and flicked back three files, and sure enough, the third was 'Thompson', and the next one was 'Tuppen'. She flicked through the file to check the name was right.

"How the Hell did you... Ow!" she held up the palm of her hand, and a cut graced the skin just below her index finger. She looked up at his with wide eyes, "How did you know that?" she demanded. He lay back in his chair again and gave his eyes a break from the computer screen, "Can you... D'you... Can you predict the future?" his lips tightened.

"I know my filing cabinet." he lied curtly.

"That's a lie, you have better things to be doing than filing, I bet someone does it for you."

"_Unlike _you, I have a _good_ memory." he countered, "Which I make the utmost use of."

She sucked her papercut and dabbed at it with a tissue.

"There are some plasters in there." he said, pointing to a sliding cupboard door in the wall. She pulled it back and rummaged amongst papers, empty paracetamol packets, and spare computer components.

"Uh, I can't reach them." she said, poking her arm in and stretching for the plasters, which, conveniently were at the back. She was 5ft7, but even still, they were on the back of a high shelf.

"Can you do nothing for yourself?" he snapped, getting up and striding towards her. He reached in and grabbed the packet easily. Without saying a word, as if this were typical of her and happened every day, he took her hand and straightened out her fingers. Before he could stop it, a thin beam of light shining from his hand and onto the cut, which got smaller, smaller, and then was nothing more. He snatched his hand away and took a few steps back, trying to prevent his shock from showing. She inspected it, finding nothing where the cut had been.

"That's amazing..." she whispered, "How did you do that?

He remained silent, because once again the feeling that he had to take care of her swept over him. He remembered when he had spied on his Egyptian counterpart with hers and, through some strange connection, been on the receiving end of some rather erotic sensations. Those sensations were not at all dissimilar to those he was feeling now. They had been wildly in love in their past lives, and apparently, even after 5000 odd years, it was rubbing off. His stomach was churning, his heart was racing, his breath was becoming audiable, their eyes had locked and he couldn't take it any longer...

They practically attacked each other. He forced his tongue into her mouth with a desperation he had never felt before, and placed his hands on the back of her waist, pressing her firmly to him. She ran his hands through his soft hair, her tongue playing with his. It was so strong, so compelling, so addicting, and she didn't want to fight it. And there they were, clinging blindly to each other, the only thing they were fighting for was control...

After about fifteen minutes, he pulled back, both of them gasping for air.

_"Uh. Oh..."_

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**WildEm: Whoopsie daisy Seto! XD**

**Seto: I hate you for making me do that.**

**WildEm: Just putting it into perspective for all my lovely readers.**

**Seto: I'm gonna kill you!!!**

**WildEm: (screams and runs)**

**Seto: Okay, if you want WildEm back for the next chapter, then you have to hit the pretty little button down there and tell me how brilliant I am and beg me to release her!!! Mwahaha.**

**WildEm: (Whacks Seto over the head) ... ... Do what the nice psychopath says children!!! **


	3. Invasion of the Talking Cat

**A CEO Scorned...**

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**WildEm: Okay, having escaped Seto for the time being, I've decided to post this quickly while he's not looking. Either that or I can die trying...**

"speech"

_"thoughts"_

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**Invasion of the Talking Cat.**

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_"Stupid stupid stupid stupid..."_

Seto cursed himself and his hormones and his life and his past life and his luck and everything else that seemed to be working against him as he placed one foot outside of his limo, letting the blood circulation return, before heaving the rest of his body out into the chilly night air. His breath was condensing infront of his face, and his hand left a warm imprint on the limo door as he slammed it shut. He marched up to the front door, keeping his head down to stop the cold air from going down his turtleneck. Normally he wasn't bothered, he preferred these cold nights to the boiling hot days of summer. If he had to make a choice between dying of heat or dying of the cold, Seto would choose the cold. But tonight was different, the cold bit at him in an unfamiliar way, and all he wanted to do was sit wrapped up in a thick duvet infront of a fire with a hot cup of coffee, reading or watching TV.

No such luck.

Yes, even the great Seto Kaiba felt like that sometimes. He was human too... Well... He was actually a whitelighter, an angel, but he preferred to be considered human. As he pressed his chin against his neck he noticed the stitching or the silver Cross Keys that had appeared on his turtleneck. The symbol of the Abhorsen. No one had questioned him about it so far except Mokuba, and, admittedly, it did look good against the black fabric. He fumbled with a cardkey so Roberts the butler wouldn't have to let him in, and while his cold fingers inserted the cardkey into the slot, he heard a faint noise near his feet.

He looked down, and there, just to his right, lying on the porch was a small, thin sleek pinkish-grey cat. He could have sworn he saw it shiver, and it looked up at him pitifully with sorrowful eyes, before meowing again.

_"Stupid animal, it's just begging..."_he thought,_"It'll go away eventually."_ Still, it looked almost ill, but there was no way in Hell he was going to be the one to look after it.

"Mokuba!!! Hey MOKUBA!!!" he yelled, his voice echoing in the very grand mansion foyer. Mokuba's head popped around the kitchen door, and he walked out with a can of Coke in his hand.

"Hey what's up Seto?" he asked innocently, as if Seto knew he had been raiding the fridge.

"Take a look at this." he said, pointing to the cat lying on the porch. Mokuba's eyes widened and he sat on his haunches, putting his Coke on the floor and inspecting the cat, which meowed miserably.

"It's a cat, Seto."

Seto wanted to bash his head against a brick. His brother, no matter how intelligent he was, had a talent for stating the obvious. "Yes I can see it's a cat Mokuba a few more likely questions are; why did it have to pick here of all places to die? And..." he trailed, seeing the collar around it's neck, "What the Hell is that?"

Maybe Seto's luck was just rotton, or maybe it was the cold night, or maybe it was just the incredible weirdness of the situation, but Seto was most definately, freaked out. He inspected the blue collar around it's trim neck, on which there was a tiny bell. He recognised the bell as Sareneth, the Binder, but the marks that glowed faintly on the collar were unfamiliar. They broke into pieces and rearranged themselves into letters;

_"Nina..."_

He glared at the cat's eyes, and it seemed to not even be bothered. If it had been human, it would have raised it's eyebrows.

"Okay. Get it inside." said Seto, brushing past his little brother and into the foyer. Mokuba picked up the cat in one hand, the Coke in the other, and used a foot to kick the door shut. Seto dropped his suitcase and went through into the massive lounge, sitting down on the nearest sofa. Mokuba followed and sat down in an armchair, holding the cat, which still looked weak in his arms. Seto really didn't know what to do with it. It was here for a reason, he was sure, but for what? He had never had any pets, although, now he thought of it, in his very distant memory of before he went into the orphanage with Mokuba, he remembered his mother had kept a cat like this one. In fact, this was the spitting image of his mother's cat, but he couldn't remember what it was called now. He had never thought himself to be good with people, let alone animals, but his Egyptian doppelganger had loved them, especially his horse, Sekhme. He had even been able to communicate with them, which was an incredibly rare ability, even now. However, Seth had grown up around animals, and had spent his entire life caring for and riding horses. Seto had not. He remembered how Seth had just seemed to know the creature, how the horse seemed to trust him. Seto was torn, as whether to leave it and throw that idea out of the window because he could never hope to match a man who had grown up around animals, or, to stick at it like Hell with the motto; 'I can do anything he can.'

"What do we do with her Seto?" asked Mokuba, stroking it gently while it purred from his lap.

"I dunno." he said.

"And what's that weird collar?" he asked, narrowing his eyes and trying to examine it. Mokuba obviously couldn't see the Charter marks that were glowing on the blue collar, and when Mokuba exclaimed that it was too tight, and began to take it off, Seto felt a burst of Free Magic, like an evil creature flexing against it's bonds, waiting. It echoed in and out of his head, and his eyes widened.

"No!" he said, in a abnormally dark, authorative tone, staring at the cat with wide eyes, "Whatever you do. Do. Not. Remove. That. Collar." Mokuba stopped. At the moment his brother had said 'no', the chill that had travelled down his spine had made him sit bolt upright. It was like a presence of magic had swept the room in a space of three seconds, like Seto had unintentionally asserted his power through knowing what would happen if the collar as removed. The presence faded, and Seto sat with his eyes still wider than usual, blinking almost in disbelief.

"Seto?" asked Mokuba gingerly, "Are y'okay?" Seto shook his head sharply as if to knock himself out of his trance, and blinked some more.

"Yeah..." he said, "Yeah I'm fine."

"Why not?"

"Hm?"

"Why not remove the collar?"

Seto sighed, "I don't know. When you touched it, I felt, this weird, sharp presence in my mind. A rush of evil, an invading thought. Like it was everywhere around us, not just in the cat, and I... I just reacted. I guess I tried to push the presence away." he said, and Mokuba listened to the silence of the lounge.

"Well you did it, it's not there anymore." he said, "But..."

"It's a Free Magic creature." Seto said quickly, his eyes transfixed on the cat again, "That collar is the only thing that's keeping it in that form."

"So we get back to the question; 'why did the cat choose to die here'?"

"Dunno. I don't wanna plonk it back outside in case it tries something evil." he said, and then smirked slightly, "It's probably got worms or something."

"I most certainly have not!!!"

Seto jumped, and looked around. "Mokuba, you hear that?" Mokuba nodded slowly and warily, as if to say; 'don't look now, but the cat's talking'. The cat jumped neatly from Mokuba's lap and landed on the coffee table between them without a sound and with ultimate style. It stared at Seto with it's green eyes. Seto stared back.

"What the Hell are you?" he asked calmly, leaning forward and resting his chin in his hands, and his elbows on his knees.

"I am a servant of the Abhorsen. You _are _the Abhorsen, are you not?" she said with a cultured air. It was a young, female voice, and Seto clocked that it spoke with a British accent. Great, it's a British cat... **(A/N: Rule Britannia!)**

"Apparently so." said Seto scornfully, "And you're a Free Magic creature."

"I am aware of that." said the cat with equal disdain. She had the same tone as Seto did when talking to lower employees: Like his very presence disgusted her. It's a stuck-up snobby British cat...

"And you are laying down your services before me? I don't think so."

"Unfortunately for myself..." she said, stretching, "I am bound to serve the Abhorsens and their family. During the Binding, Abhorsen Sabriel released my former form to fight the Destroyer, and After the Binding, she recaptured me, and gave me my new form. I have very little recollection of my life in my former form, except for the last thirty years of it. I had another form before that, but that's irrelevant. I have been, oh what would you call it... Recycled. Although I served for thousands of years before that. I am Nina." she said, and Seto narrowed his eyes.

"Seto Kaiba."

"I know." she stated.

"How long have you been in this form?"

"Let me see, your mother was Abhorsen Serena, her father was Abhorsen Sameth, his half-aunt and predecessor was Abhorsen Lirael, and her half-sister and predecessor was Abhorsen Sabriel. So that would be when Sameth was seventeen... fifty-one years."

"Wait, my mother..."

"Are you not aware of the Abhorsen's lineage?" she questioned, "Every generation a child is born into this family, destined to be the Abhorsen. Your mother is your predecessor. You have been the Abhorsen in Waiting ever since you were born, but your powers were blocked by your conscience. Now they are unblocked, now _you _are the Abhorsen, and now I am bound to serve you, master." she lowered her head in a kind of cat-bow.

"If the Abhorsen lineage is all family..." Seto challenged, "That would mean that my Egyptian past-incarnation is my ancestor..." That made him think. Was it possible that he was Seth had had a family, and that he was his descendant? He pushed these thoughts away.

"Ah, the Abhorsens were not always family." Nina explained in her English accent, and Seto relaxed, "In ancient times, the Abhorsens were not related, they did not all belong to the same family, the next Abhorsen would be the person who would do the job the best. But towards the beginning of the medieval era, as Abhorsens' knowledge was passed down to their children, it became that the child of the previous Abhorsen was the best candidate, because they were already so well educated in magic and battle-skills. And hence the bloodlines became purer, and hence the Abhorsen in Waiting would be related to the previous Abhorsen."

"Battle skills?" Seto asked.

"But of course! Abhorsens are formidable warriors! Especially with swords..." she saw Seto's face, "Well what did you expect? You know how to fence. I know you know how to fence." she said. **(A/N: Fencing is sword-fighting.)**

Seto was surprised. Yes, he could fence. His mother had begun to teach him, and he had shown incredible talent for it. When Gozaburo had discovered this flair, he let Seto carry on, thinking that it would be good discipline for him. It was, but by doing so, Gozaburo had effectively just put several more nails into the coffins of all the necromancers and demons of the Underworld.

"How..."

"Abhorsens fence. Period." she said matter-of-factly, her tail moving with a life of it's own.

"So why did you have to die on our porch?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"Do I look like I'm dying? It's called attention seeking. I have to stick with you and tell you everything you don't know. As of tonight, I am your house cat. Kabeesh?" **(A/N: Is that a word?) **she said in a very 'Salem-the-cat' fashion.

"No. Not kabeesh! I have better things to be doing than buying cat food!"

"Tough I'm staying." she said, and Seto scowled. Mokuba shrugged and sat back, as if to say; 'your call'. Nina jumped down from the coffee table, holding her tail in the air, "Well? Do I get a guided tour, or not?"

£

£

After having shown Nina around the mansion, Rolling his eyes, Mokuba slipped into his brother's office and closed the door behind him.

"Hey kid..." said Seto quietly, "How you doing?"

"I'm good." Mokuba shrugged, "Hey Seto, the weirdest thing came up in Current Affairs today; did you hear about that French woman who's just woken up from Persistant Vegetative State?"

Seto nodded whilst continuing to type. "Oh yeah, what's her name... P something..."

"Her name's Péséraelle Lavoie, and the French authorities have no idea why she woke up. Even thought she's only been in PVS for a few months. And what's really weird..." Mokuba's eyes widened, "Is that she can't talk. It's been all over the papers."

"I should think she can't, having been in PVS. People can't, Mokuba."

"It's not that she's mute, it's that she's speaking a language that no one understands. It's really freaky."

Those words were going to annoy Seto for the rest of the evening, and Hell if he was going to be the last to know about this. Why he wanted to know, he was unsure, it haad just struck a strange kind of curiosity right on the head. After he finished his stack load of paperwork, at one o' clock in the morning, no less, he logged on, and scoured YouTube like no tomorrow. His mouth silently formed the word 'bingo' and he double-clicked the video title and enlarged it. There she was...

_I've seen her before..._

She had a drip in her arm and was sat up, her eyes barely open. She looked like she was from southern France, as her skin was slightly darker, and she had black, unkempt hair. The video was obviously from some French news program.

"Aujourd-hui, nous visitons 'la femme qui a gagné les coeurs du monde entier' à l'hôpital Pasteur à Paris! A c'moment, elle peux que ouvrir les yeux, mais elle a pris decidement la conaissance. Cependant elle dit seulement les mots indistingués, mais heureusement les experts disent qu'ils sont due aux plusieurs ans qu'elle a dormi... Le réveil de Péséraelle Lavoie est le premier fois que quelq'un qui était diagnostiqué avec le C-V-P - condition végétatif persistant - longtemps est en bonne voie de guérison..."

**(A/N: Translation: Today, we visit 'the woman who has won the entire worlds' hearts' in the Pasteur hospital in Paris. At the moment she can only open her eyes, but she is definately conscious. However she only says indistinguishable words, but fortunately experts say that they are the result on so many years in the vegetative state. The awakening of Péséraelle Lavoie is the first time anyone with long term PVS is well on the way to recovery...)**

Seto was no longer interested in the babbling journalist who was giving the commentry. He could see the young woman in the hospital bed with a drip in her arm. Her lips were moving slightly. Forming words. Definately words. He tried to read her lips, and listened to the background sounds of her mumbling...

_"Yah-radah, hah-toy-yu ah-t-zu hai whe..." _

Seto shook his head, and replayed the video. There it was again.

_"Yah-radah, hah-toy-yu ah-t-zu hai whe..."_

_"Hoy-ya naf-oh-whe..."_

He kept re-playing the video again and again, staring with blank eyes. Each time he heard it, more fell into place, until the words that came from her mouth were as plain as day. Perfectly understandable.

_"Only you can bring me back..."_

_"I will not leave you..."_

£

£

**WildEm: Oooh. Again, any problems with the French, tell me and I swear I'll change it. Oh, and I also own the Mummy and the Mummy Returns. Duh! That's where I got the Egyptian from, but it's all written how it sounds, because I just listened to it again and again until I could hear what they were saying. It's not spelt right. Say it like it's English and you won't be too far off lol!**

**Seto: GET AWAY FROM THAT LAPTOP!!!**

**WildEm: Oi, pull the stick out will you!**

**Seto: Don't hurt me...**

**WildEm: Also, any votes on who should be my new bishie peeps? I can't decide... **


	4. Agony Aunt

**A CEO Scorned...**

**£**

**Seto: WildEm regrets that she is currently unable to speak with you...**

**WildEm: Eh?**

**Seto: I am comandeering this fic so as to stop the evil authoress...**

**WildEm: (Whacks Seto over head with laptop transformer) No one will ever stop me!!! ****SxS Action here peeps!**

**£**

**Agony Aunt; Emphasis on the 'Agony'.**

**£**

**£**

_"Why do I even bother with this shitty school?"_

Such questions are philosophical.

Once again, Seto found himself sitting amongst a classroom full of morons, his head in his hands, his ears more tuned into the passing inaudiable radio-waves than what the teacher was saying. It was a German lesson, and, in Seto's - and anyone else's who actually possessed common sense - opinion, a waste of his time. He already spoke German fluently for crying out loud! He could take the exam now, and easily get better marks than the god-damn teacher.

"Herr Kaiba, wie ist _deine_ Meinung nach der Rauchverbot der Stadt Domino?" the teacher asked him, and he looked up. **(A/N: That being German for 'Mr. Kaiba, what's **_**your**_** opinion on the Domino smoking ban?')**

"Ich hab' keine Einwendungen davon, aber's hatte keine fantastische Auswirkung auf mich. Es wuerde keine dicke Raucher bei Arbeit geben mehr, aber eigentlich hab' ich sie jedenfalls schon entgelassen. Obwohl ich jetzt keine Kippe hab'n darf, wenn ich 'ne brauche. " **(A/N: Meaning: 'I don't have any objections to it, but it has no great effect on me. There wouldn't be any more fat smokers at work, but actually I'd already fired them anyway. Although now I can't have a fag when I need one.') **he answered with a cheeky smirk on his face. The class burst out in giggles and murmers, well, those who had understood, that was. The teacher scowled and continued, but Kaiba hadn't finished there.

"Du sollst's versuchen, Du siehst sich aus, wie du eine gute Kippe braucht." **('You should try it, you look like you need a good fag.') **he said, crossing his legs under the desk, and all of the class burst out laughing. The teacher reddened slightly, out of anger, or embarrassment, we shall never know.

"Vielen Dank, Herr Kaiba." **('Thank you Mr. Kaiba') **she said sarcastically, and he smirked. She wouldn't ask him again. He went back to his 'head in his hands' stance, and, for fun, tried to tap into the minds of his fellow classmates. It was far too easy. They were all mortals. Reading the mind of a magician was more difficult, because if they sensed you, they could force you out, if they were strong enough, and with minds of magicians, it usually depended on who was the cleverest. He continued to tap into the minds of various students around the room, and they were all thinking pretty much the same thing;

_"How long is it 'til the god-damn Bell?"_

Seto smirked, thinking the same himself, before he picked his next victim. He chose Elizaveta Svyatoslaevna, a tall, slim girl with long dark brown hair and dark eyes. She had transferred to Domino High from St. Petersburg in Russia a few years ago, and her voice had a slight Russian accent to it. She was almost as good as him at German, although not fluent, she was very good at it and her marks weren't far off his. What had freaked him out about her at first was that she was very vaguely famliar. He eased into her mind, but came up against a barrier. He tried again, more discreetly this time, and the barrier suddenly strengthened, and a powerful force repelled him, and he was forced back into his own consciousness, rubbing his temples and waited for the ringing to subside. His head felt like it was splitting and he willed the pain away.

_"Take a trip down your own memory lane, Kaiba!!!"_

Kaiba's eyes widened as he recognised the voice in his head to be Elizaveta's. He looked up, and she turned to face him with a glare that even he would have been proud of. Was it his mind playing tricks on him, or had he heard her? Was she a witch? He projected a message to her, just to check.

_"What's the matter? Got something particularly embarrassing in yours?" _he waited, and saw her eyes narrow as if she was listening to something.

_"In your dreams! Since when do you read minds?"_

_"It's a recent affliction actually. You?"_

_"I was always better at the repelling." _she projected, and turned to give him a quick sweet yet fake smile, _"You, a magician? Charter preserve us!"_

_"What do you know about the Charter?"_

_"What do you know?"_

_"Enough to know that you shouldn't know."_

_"How long have you had powers?" _she asked him, "_Ususally I would be able to sense it, but I've never sensed anything from you."_

_"I couldn't sense anything from you either."_

_"I'm good."_

_"Really?"_ Oh the sarcasm.

_"My grandmother was Abhorsen Lirael." _she projected proudly yet casually. Ah. That was it.

_"I'm surprised you even know what the Abhorsen is."_he projected, using sarcasm to cover up the fact that he was surprised, she would almost certainly pick it up. Abhorsen Lirael? She was his great-grandmother's half-sister and sucessor. That made Elizaveta... his half aunt three times removed!!! And she was six months younger than he was!

_"I've been at this magic lark a long time, Kaiba!"_she mentally snarled, _"Longer than you, obviously..." _then she sensed his shock, _"Kaiba, you're perplexed. I can feel it." _she said, freaking him out even more. His power of Psychokinesis kicked in. His phone was going to vibrate in 3... 2... 1...

_buzz... buzz..._

Everyone turned to look at him, and he pulled his phone out of his pocket. The teacher was silently cursing. The students weren't allowed to have their phones in school, but Seto, as the CEO of a major company, was an exception. He flicked it up, and, noticing that it was 'Home' calling, pressed the 'pick up' button.

"Kaiba." he said authoritively, and nearly fell off his chair when he heard the voice.

"Master Seto, you need to come home right away!"

"Nina? What do you think you're doing?!" he demanded quietly. His next words were going to be 'using the phone', but he shut himself up just in time. Elizaveta looked up at the mention of the cat's name.

"Calling you." said the cat, who was crouched with her mouth close to the upturned receiver, "There's going to be a demon attack!"

"Can't it wait?"

"No. They only attack when Saturn is in retrograde, which is now. They're called Kinoan Demons, and you need to mix a special potion for them. Now. Orb here now!"

"Alright. I'll be there in twenty minutes." he said, flipping the phone down. Well, the class that was listening had to think it was work calling, not his talking cat. He began to pack his stuff away and grabbed his books.

"Problem at work. I'll catch up." he said stiffly to the gobsmacked teacher.

"Mr. Kaiba..."

"I _said_ I'll catch up!!!"

No more questions asked. Seto grabbed his laptop and marched out of the classroom. He shoved his books in his locker and slammed it shut, and then was faced with another problem. CCTV. The school was watched by cameras twenty-four seven. Would it matter? No one was watching the cameras live, and what were the chances the police would want to view that exact bit of tape from that specific day? He didn't plan on orbing infront of a camera, but they if someone was doing their job properly, they would realise that there was no tape of him leaving the building or getting into a car. The CCTV was only in the corridors and on the carpark and grounds though. Not the classrooms. He turned a corner, and peered into the nearest classroom. To his relief it was empty, and he leant his weight against the door, and let it close behind him. He let out a deep sigh of satisfaction, and orbed out.

**£**

**£**

He orbed back into the mansion lounge, and found Nina lying on the sofa. She opened one eye lazily, and saw him put his hands on his hips and scowl.

"Oh good you're here." she exclaimed, jumping onto the back of the sofa, "When you said you'd be twenty minutes I was worried you might actually have meant it. I've ordered some stuff so you can get cracking on that potion."

His face deteriorated to one of confusion. "Wait, stuff?"

"Well you can't make vanquishing potion with flour and eggs can you?" she said, "So I've got some proper ingredients in." Seto walked into the kitchen and saw all manner of boxes on the sideboards. There was a load of polystyrene bits in them, and also jars of herbs, spices, and other things he remembered seeing on the shelves in Ancient Egypt.

"You ordered this?" he spat, "How? Is there a magical mail service?" he scoffed, "And how did you pay for it?"

"Yes, there is a magical mail service, and I didn't have to pay for it. I just dropped in that I was a servant of the one and only Abhorsen, and it was all free."

"You can't be serious..." he said, picking up some black poppy seed and inspecting it.

"Yup. In comparison to what the Abhorsen does for the greater good, a few potion ingredients are hardly payment at all..." she saw Seto's face, "I've been doing this a _long _time. Trust me."

"But... I've never made a potion in my life! Well, not this one... But I don't even know how!" he said, slamming a jar of freeze-dried dill down on the side.

"I'd taken that into account." she said, jumping onto the side and prodding a box with her tail, "And, I had these brought from St. Petersburg." Seto approached the box slowly, as if there was some kind of deadly creature lurking under the polystyrene bits. He plunged his hands into the box, and pulled out two books, both about A3 size, and recognised them instantly. The old-looking one with the brown-ish paper, the dark green cover and the wiccan triquertra on the front, this was the Book of Shadows. And the other, bound in thick black leather and thin, translucent white pages, and a title that only appeared when it was being touched by a necromancer or Charter Mage which looked disturbingly like it had been written in blood. This was the Book of the Dead. He had scoured both for information about personal planes when Serenity had been caught in one, he had looked for a spell or a potion to bring her back into Life, until reading a passage the Book of the Dead, and realised that the only thing that could save her was his love.

"Kinoan Demons." said Nina, jabbing the Book of Shadows with her tail, "Get cracking."

Seto quickly got the hang of potion-brewing, remembering how good Seth had been at it. It was a cross between Home Economics and Chemistry, with a magic twist. It took him about half an hour to finish it, and he put some into a potion vial that Nina had ordered. He could feel the demon attack was nearing, and went through into the lounge to find the cat sleeping. He shook his head in a mock-disappointment and used a vanishing spell on the boxes. He heard a whirring noise next door, and picked up the potions. He hid behind the door, and heard footsteps in the lounge.

"Where is he?" asked a voice, and Seto made his breathing even quieter, his grip around the potion vial tightening. How many were there...?

"He can't be too hard t'find, he's a newbie. We kill him now and we won't have to worry anymore. He can't produce an Abhorsen in Waiting if he's dead can he?"

"Still..." said another voice, "He's the _Abhorsen_!"

"You do realise we won't get a second chance to kill him. Next time, he'll be ready for us."

"There won't be a next time." he said in his darkest voice, walking out infront of them. There were more than he thought, about eight, and he felt his powers come to life inside him. He threw the vial into the middle of them, vanquishing the five nearest to the broken vial. They screamed as their bodies went up in flames, and the remaining three attacked. An energy ball appeared in the first one's hand, and he lobbed it at Seto.

"Energy ball!" he commanded, throwing out his hand to rebound the energy ball. There was a bashing sound, and then orbs tinkling, and the demon was vanquished. He didn't hear the tinkling behind him. He gathered his power and sent out streams of electricity bolts, and the next demon vanquished. He lifted his hands to attack the last one, but there was a sound, like smashing wood, and the demon screamed and combusted. But, he hadn't even attacked that one...

He sensed a presence behind him, and turned to see Elizaveta, clad all in black, which looked a little like what the British Royal Guard would wear - without the tassles obviously - with trousers tucked into knee high boots with small sitletto heels, and an overcoat, which was closely tailored and had two long tails which reached her calves. It was a clever yet strangely fantastic amalgamation of victorian black tie and femme fatale. She had her arms folded and was staring at him as if he had a massive spot on the end of his nose.

"A _whitelighter_???!!!" she scoffed, her voice a combination of disdain and disbelief, "You're a _**whitelighter**_????!!!!"

"Excuse me? What are _you _doing in my house?"

"I'm no idiot." she said sharply, "I could tell it wasn't a problem at work, you would have just told them t'fix it if it was. So I pulled a sicky, went home, scryed for you, and orbed here. Oh God how can you be a whitelighter...?"

"What's the problem with me being a whitelighter?" he asked her scornfully, and she gave him the same look as Nina had yesterday.

"The Abhorsens are _witches_!!! Don't you know that? _Witches_! _Not whitelighters_!!!" she yelled, almost in desperation.

"How did you even know I was a whitelighter?"

"You used the power of Electrokinesis, which is a whitelighter power. A Charter Mage who was primarily a witch would have blasted them with Temporal Combustion. But no! You just had to zap them! Your whitelighter powers are marginally stronger than your witch powers. I can feel it."

"What's the problem?" he snarled at her, having had just about enough of her, "Because I don't see it. And if you're gonna come here to bug me, I suggest you leave!"

"Now is that any way to talk to your aunt?" Nina injected sweetly from her post on the coffee table, waving her tail around.

"_Half _aunt _three _times removed!!!" Seto snapped, "She's six months younger than me and... How do you know anyway?"

Nina stretched, "She looks it." she yawned, "Dark hair, dark eyes, pale complexion. Up until about two generations ago they were classic Abhorsen features. In fact, if I didn't know, and I was forced to guess which one of you was the Abhorsen based on nothing but appearance, I'd say it was her." Elizaveta smiled and Seto scowled, "You have lighter hair like your father. Your mother had blue eyes though. You look ever so like her..."

"And you're Nina, the talking cat." said Elizaveta.

"Amen to that..." Seto murmered. Nina took a mock bow, and straightened up again.

"What kind of Abhorsen are you? A whitelighter, with no Bells, and no Blade. Charter help us..." Elizaveta mused, and Seto thought, he actually didn't have the Abhorsen's Blade, or any Bells. He had no idea where they were.

"You're a Charter Magistrix?" said Seto annoyedly. **(A/N: 'Magistrix' is just a female Mage.)**

"No. I'm a randomer who decided to orb in here because I had nothing better to do! Of course I am!!! And, you are my nephew, even though you're older than me, which is kinda freaky, but, I regret to say, I'm here to help you." she said, and he snorted;

"Yeah like I need you're help!" he snarled, "You orb in here, make a pathetic attempt to find something wrong with me, and if you think I'm about to fall on my knees and beg for your help, you're seriously mistaken!"

"Hey! I'm trying to be nice here!"

"Yeah, what a _fantastic _job you're doing!!!"

"Listen! I get shipped over here to Japan, yanked away from my family and friends in St. Petersburg, because a new Abhorsen was coming into power over here! I had t'learn the god-damn language from scratch!!! And, out of all the people in bloody Japan, the Abhorsen I've been sent to guide happens to be the most _clueless _man since Kalliel!!!" she yelled, **(A/N: Kalliel was a foolish Abhorsen who was mentioned in the Old Kingdom Trilogy) **and Seto stood pretty dumbstruck. Stubbornness was a family trait they both possessed. Nina watched the row for a while, before becoming bored.

"Oi, you two, we have a job to do." she said, stepping into the crossfire, "Which means a little mission."

"What? Nina, I'm not going on any missions, okay? I have an IB to study for, a company to run, amongst other stuff!" he said, holding up a hand, and Elizaveta gave a similar expression. **(A/N: The 'IB' is the International Bacculaureate)**

"What he said... Without the company bit..." she said.

"This can't be more important than your lives, this _is _your lives!" she yowled, "Anyway, I had also taken that into account, seeing how your lives mean so much to you, and we will be going to find someone called Ryou Bakura."

"WHAT???!!!" said Seto and Elizaveta in unison, their jaws dropped.

"You mean that psycho-freak albino who tried to kill everyone???!!!" Seto fumed.

"Now is that Ryou we're talking about, or his waste of space past incarnation who is so annoyingly occupying the Millennium Ring?"

"How do you know about this?"

Nina yowled. "I know lots of things." she said, "And anyway, the Millennium Items are connected with the Shadow Realm, which happens to be the stage between Life and Death, which happen to be the specialities of whom exactly?"

Seto sighed. Him. "Why the Hell are we going to find Bakura? I'd rather not have anything to do with any sick plan to destroy the world he's got going."

"See, that's the thing. I'm gonna tell you the plan. So pull up a chair and listen." she said. Elizaveta sat down neatly on the sofa and Seto leant against the arm of a nearby armchair and folded his arms.

"We're listening."

"As you know, all the spirits of the Millennium Items have been reincarnated, yes?"

"Yes."

"But Bakura was not the rightful owner of the Millennium Ring."

"Then that doesn't make that freak Shaadi the rightful owner of the Millennium Balance." said Seto, happy with his intelligent remark. Elizaveta was surprised at his knowledge of this, she thought that he didn't know anything at all.

"You are _far_ too logical. Logic and Magic don't mix. You're correct, but that's Shaadi's problem."

"Then the Ring is Bakura's problem, not ours."

"Cut the smart observations. It's become our problem recently. You guys know how the Items were created. Ninety-nine souls had to be sacrificed. The Items were created with evil in them. The Items chose their Masters, and only to their worthy Masters would they submit. A Holder, as they are called, is not designed nor intended to wield the power of an Item. Should someone come across an Item by accident or steal it, or buy it, for example, the Item will use them, the Holder, to try to return to their Master." she acknowledged Seto's raised eyebrows, "Yes Master Seto, Item's _do _have minds of their own, and what you don't know about, the Item does by itself. Now Items don't like it when Holders try to control them. They simply use the Holders to get from one place to another. Ryou Bakura, and his yami, are Holders. It's not Ryou's fault, it's the yami's, but the Items use the evil inside them to corrupt the Holder, giving them evil power to try to get them to discard them, but often this just turns the Holder evil. You both are very aware of what happens when someone somehow obtains power that they are not destined to have. The results are fatal. They just aren't psychologically and physically designed to have that power."

"So we're going to save Ryou." said Elizaveta, and Nina nodded.

"And, as Master Seto said, we don't know what the yami is up to, all we know is that he's not supposed to be here in the Living Realm. He was supposed to die all those years ago but it went wrong. This is where we come in. It's our job to keep Fate parallel to Destiny. So, we have to release the Ring's true Master."

"So we are looking for What's-His-Name's reincarnation?" asked Seto, and Elizaveta looked at him questioningly, "But, he's in Yugi's deck!"

"_Priest Mahado_ is in Yugi's deck." Nina corrected, "And, as Bakura comandeered the Ring, he doesn't have a reincarnation, but he is supposed to be here, unlike Bakura. So we have to put that right."

"How exactly do we plan to boot Bakura out?" asked Elizaveta.

"Well, that's where you guys have gotta start thinking."

"Pity we have to vanquish him. He's actually a half-decent duellist." Seto inserted.

"He's also a half-decent evil person." said Nina, for the tone, she could have been his mother.

"We would have to separate Bakura from Ryou, so that Ryou didn't get hurt." Elizaveta suggested, "So we would have to combine the depossession spell with... Uh..."

"He's not possessed. We could use a Depossession slash Separation potion and a spell to draw his evil spirit, that way we could pull him out, and be sure we get Bakura and not Ryou." said Seto, "And then we can use the 'To Banish An Evil Spirit' spell. So we can kick his evil arse back to whichever stone it crawled out from under."

Nina gave a cat-smile. "You catch on quickly." Elizaveta looked like she was concealing a face which would say 'I'm gonna kill you for besting me'. Seto smirked. "So you two can get on with doing that."

"I don't have time. _She _can do it." he snapped, and Elizaveta raised her eybrows.

"Why?" she asked. She had secretly been looking forward to meeting the former Abhorsen, if she was allowed to.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a company to run." With that, he walked out, leaving Nina and Elizaveta dumbstruck.

"What was wrong with my plan?" asked Nina, and Elizaveta shrugged.

"They do say Hell hath no fury like a Charter Mage scorned."

"Tch. He's an Abhorsen scorned." **(A/N: HINT HINT Here comes the title line!!!... Wait for it... Wait for it...)**

"No!!! I'm a CEO scorned!!!!!!!!!" Seto yelled. He marched briskly out of the lounge, and was just crossing the foyer, when the the doorbell rang. Seto went to the little screen that was embedded in the wall, and pressed one of the shiny silver buttons. An image appeared, and Seto's heartbeat increased. He shut the screen off, and heard the footsteps approaching.

"It's alright Roberts I'll get it." he said.

"Very well Sir." said Roberts the butler, and returned to whatever he was doing. Seto opened the door, and smiled as a loving face looked up to greet him.

"Wow, Seto Kaiba answers his own door?" Serenity joked.

"Only in special circumstances." he said flirtaciously, and she smiled.

"I've brought your German homework, your Maths homework, your Physics homework, and some other random stuff that apparently belongs to you. I called you at the office but they said you'd never gone there. Are you okay?" she asked, and he opened the door wider.

"Come in." he said, taking the pile of papers from her and kicking the door shut behind her.

"Wow." she said, admiring the grand foyer.

"Come through." he said, gesturing to another big lounge, in the hope of avoiding Nina and Elizaveta. He pressed a button on the side of the door, and prompty, Roberts the butler arrived, coat-tails in pursuit.

"Yes Sir?" he said in a very Roberts the butler-y fashion.

"D'you want something to drink?" Seto asked her.

"Some tea would be great." she said, and Roberts the butler bowed, and scurried off, knowing that his boss would be wanting some coffee, as strong as was legal. Seto sat down and nursed his head.

"Are you okay?" she repeated, and he sighed.

"If you thought that Magic couldn't possibly do much more to try and destroy my life. Think again."

"Well..." she said, curling her bottom lip and tightening her eyebrows, "You can tell me." she said softly, "I won't tell anybody." he sighed, and spilled;

"I can't do everything! Student, company CEO, Abhorsen. I can't do all this! Something's gonna have to give! And I don't want to..." Serenity wrapped her arms around him and drew him into a hug, nuzzling her cheek against his.

"It's okay... It's okay..." she soothed, kissing him just below his ear. Seto felt weak. Weaker than ever before. His heart pounded furiously in his chest, and everything else felt a world away. He began to plant gentle kisses up her neck, her jawline, her mouth... This one wasn't like before, this wasn't love and lust, this was pure, true, untainted love. If everything could just be like this, he need never have anything else. It was so strong he thought his heart was going to stop dead from the strain of it. He broke away very, very gently, and gazed deeply into her hazel eyes.

"I... I think I..." he breathed

Serenity's esteem flew sky high when these words hit her ears. They struck with a greater impact than her brother's deafening music being switched on in a quiet house, and she massaged the back of his neck, sending waves of pleasure down his spine. She now knew why Kisara had loved Seth so much. She was the Yin to his Yang, they fitted together like two pieces of a jigsaw, interlocking perfectly, there was no hope of ever pulling them apart. Last year, when Joey had first told her about him, if she, Seto and Yami Bakura had been the last three human-beings on Earth, she would have far preferred Bakura, but as his lips began to work their magic on hers again, she knew that he was perfect for her, in every way, and was the only one who was. She broke it gently, and he leant forward and captured her mouth again, and she broke it again.

"Your butler will be here with that tea." she whispered, and he nodded reluctantly. He leant back while his brain frantically tried to think of what they could talk about. Now whether this next intrusion was fortunate or not for him is quite a mystery, but the silent padding of small paws was apparent on the thick carpet. Nina jumped onto the back of the sofa and tickled their noses with her tail, making Serenity giggle and Seto purse his lips. She noticed that they were both breathing hard, and their pulses were high.

"I didn't know you had a cat." she said, "Hey puss."

"Hello." said Nina in a terribly British manner. Serenity jumped, had it just spoken?

"Uh, yeah, Nina, this is Serenity, Serenity, this is Nina, my very annoying, uh... talking cat." said Seto, narrowing his eyes discreetly at the cat.

"Honoured to make your aquaintance." said Nina, offering Serenity a paw.

"Uh, pleasure." said Serenity nervously, taking the paw and shaking it gingerly.

"Nina, where are you?" called a young, feminine voice from the foyer. Serenity's first thought was; _"Who's she?"_

"In here!" Nina called, and Elizaveta appeared at the doorway.

"Hey, you're Elizaveta aren't you?" asked Serenity, vaguely recognising her from school.

"Yeah, you're Serenity Wheeler." she said, and the two girls shook hands.

"So, how come you're here?" Serenity queried.

"Oh, I'm Seto's aunt." she said brightly, and Seto scowled very audiably.

"_Half _aunt _three _times removed!!!" he said through gritted teeth.

"Aren't you younger than him though?" asked Serenity, pointing to him, then to her, and then to him again.

"YES!!!" both of them yelled in unison.

"Yes she is." Nina confirmed, and Serenity nodded. Roberts the butler got his timing perfect, and entered the lounge with a silver tray laden with two cups and saucers, a coffee filter and a small teapot, a pot of cream, and a ramekin of sugar. The tray gleamed, and it even had a single red rose in a tall slim vase which glittered in what was left of the daylight. On seeing the party, his expression turned to one of hidden surprise.

"Oh..." he exclaimed in a genuinely confused manner, "Should I have brought more tea, Sir?"

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**WildEm: If there are any mistakes in my German please review and tell me! I'm always looking to improve my German I don't care if you say it's crap, just R&R!!! Gotta love Roberts the butler!**


	5. My Family and Other Animals

**A CEO Scorned...**

**WildEm: By the way, **_**Yes I am **_**Gerald Durrell, whose book was given the same title as this chapter. I studied it way back in Year Eight (the British equivelant of seventh grade) and it was the most boring read eeeeeeeeeever!!! Even though I wrote it of course. Hopefully my chapter will be better lol! (I have nothing against Gerald Durrell (a.k.a me) apart from the fact I thought his book was boring!)**

**Seto goes quite OOC in this chappie but you'll see why. **

"speech"

_"thoughts"_

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**My Family and other Animals**

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Seto found himself longing for Serenity's company again as he sat in his office, scrolling through all the e-mails in his inbox. It was dark once more, and he could hear the bluster of leaves circulating outside, the trees shunning them like schoolchildren shunned their schoolbags at the beginning of the summer holidays. Everything about her was so perfect, and he felt like he wanted to give her everything. His finger slammed down on the 'return' button of his keyboard, he had fallen deeper than he had thought. He finally understood how Seth could have felt so deeply for Kisara. The LCD screen of his laptop projected a bright light onto his face, reflecting in his eyes, giving him an angelic appearance. He felt incomplete without her...

_"I love her..."_

He now felt lonely. Before, he would have liked peace and quiet like this, been happy just to get on and get some work out of the way. But now, he felt lonely. Mokuba was doing football **(A/N: 'Soccer', if you're in the USA.)** practice followed by dinner with some mates, and wouldn't be back until about eight. He had shut his office door so that Nina couldn't bother him, but there was already too much bugging him, even with the removal of Nina. He had fallen in love, the one thing he promised himself he would never do. Flashbacks of Gozaburo telling him that love was for the weak played in his mind's eye, and his stomach turned.

Love was so foreign to him, it felt strange, like he was soaring, yet weighed down like a ton of lead at the same time. It felt like he wanted to be as close to her as possible, to become part of her, to fuse his soul with hers, yet such a bond always seemed to be just out of his reach, and both of them were both reaching and yearning for it, yet that bond seemed to move further and further away from them, making them fall even deeper into the abyss of love as they tried to catch it. And suddenly he found himself feeling all these emotions, and was thrown into a state of confusion. He couldn't do anything easily anymore...

Shaking his head sharply, he noticed that the pages he was trying to access were taking a long time to load, or more accurately, the phone line was being blocked. He checked the connection status, and saw that it was, there was indeed someone else clogging up the delicate braodband connection. That either meant that a) someone was connected to the Internet on another computer, eg: Mokuba's, b) the DVD player was playing up again, or c) there was someone using the phone. He hadn't heard Mokuba come in, it could have been Roberts the butler ordering food supplies and whatever else butlers needed to do their jobs properly, but Roberts the butler usually used the staff phone, which was on a separate phone line. Seto got up out of his spinny chair and marched out of his study, only just remembering that he had to actually open the door before he could go through it.

He strode into the lounge, where, to his extreme dismay, Nina was sat next to the phone turned over on it's side, her neck stretched to reach the mouth end.

"Yeah, quadruple anchovies and extra tuna. Nope, that's it, thanks." she said, pressing the 'hang up' button with her tail.

"Nina!!!" Seto yelled, picking up the handset and jamming it down on the cradle, "What quadruple anchovies and extra tuna???!!!" he asked with a very low, dark tone, accompanied by his famous Seto Kaiba death glare.

"Ordering pizza." she said with a malicious cheek to her voice **(A/N: Think Salem the cat here people)**, "When you said you didn't have time to buy cat food, I didn't think you actually meant it! A cat could starve around here!"

"Yes, that was the idea." said Seto, and Nina shot him a quick glare, "Hopefully, by starving you, you wouldn't have the energy to be _running up my phone bill_!!!"

"Young Master, one of these days, you will learn there is a lot more to life than work."

"That all depends whether you're a cat or not."

"I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!!!" she protested daftly, and he narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips.

"Uh, yes you are..." he stated, and she yowled. "I have a question for you." he said in the voice he usually reserved for work.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees?"

"Why did Svyatoslaevna have a spaz about me being a whitelighter?" he asked, folding his arms and taking his weight on his right, allowing his left to bend casually. She stretched and her tail started waving around again.

"Ah..." she said, as if he had just asked her a question she didn't really want to answer, "Are you not aware of the Whitelighter Debate?"

Seto shook his head. And Nina prepared herself for a long-winded speech.

"There has been some debate, well, a _lot _of debate about whitelighters recently... well, not recently, ever since the Beginning, but recently it has been at a very talked-about topic - more so then usual."

"Go on." he beckoned.**(A/N: In my fic whitelighters will be alive. I know in Charmed they're dead, but I'm changing it slightly lol. Whitelighters will also have wings which they can conceal and 'unfold' at any time they like, but they're only supposed to fly if the circumstances mean that they **_**really **_**can't orb.)**

"There has been some debate... as to whether, whitelighters are human or not." Nina forced out, and Seto stared, "Whitelighters are born on Earth like any other human, but as you know, they are angels. Whitelighters live on Earth, and although they are not restricted to Earth, they do not live in the Heavens, which would make them human, however they are still angels, with wings, and angelic powers. Different people bias their opinions on what they personally believe, there is no one answer to this debate. It has gone on for millennia, and will continue to do so. It was topical in ancient times, but then it was forgotton, and people 'agreed to disagree', and recently it has been uncovered again, and people are trying to come to a final answer. But, as you can see, there is no answer to that question. Even the whitelighters themselves are unsure as to whether they are human or not."

"So why does Svyatoslaevna not like me then if there is no correct answer?"

"The Abhorsens are wiccan. Mistress Elizaveta believes that the Abhorsens should be witches or magicians, and should be human. Why, you ask? There is a very old and very magically sacred rhyme, which goes:

'Five great charters knit the land

together linked, hand in hand

One in the people who wear the crown

Two in the folk who keep the Dead down

Three and Five became stone and mortar

Four Sees all in frozen water'.

The poem goes; 'Two in the _folk_'Folk means the human race, as does 'people'. The Abhorsen is one of the people. No higher, although far, far stronger in magic. Mistress Elizaveta thinks that, because you are a whitelighter, you are breaking centuries of tradition, breaking the very principles of magic itself, and going against what the Abhorsens stand for. That's why she's being sour."

"Tough. I didn't choose to be a whitelighter."

"Yes, but there are ways out of it. You could clip your wings, which would mean that you would become what's called a 'whitelighter-magician' - a magician with whitelighter powers, but you wouldn't be able to fly, and you wouldn't be able to call yourself a whitelighter."

"I'm not gonna do that!!!"

"Precisely. It's an honour thing. But unfortunately, that makes people think that whitelighters are uncooperative."

"WHAT???!!!" he spat.

"Exactly." she said, "I rest my case. Everyone is in a no win situation. You are gonna have to be prepared for this. It might take a while for you to be, um, accepted. There are a lot of people out there, and most definately the demons and necromancers, who really don't like the idea of a whitelighter Abhorsen."

"So the whitelighters are generally disliked, then?"

"No. Not by their charges, well not much anyway. There is the occasional witch who doesn't want to accept the protection of a whitelighter - your mother was living proof of that, but otherwise, on the whole the witches support the whitelighters, they just think that whitelighters haven't got the heads to be dealing with the Dead and what-have-you. They think they're too naive, of course, they aren't, less so than their critics even, but witches will be witches."

"And what do _you_ think?" he asked.

Nina looked him in the eye. "I think that whitelighters are not human. But as they take on human forms, human morals and society, I see no reason why this debate should exist at all. Whitelighters are human in all but powers."

"So where is Svyatoslaevna then?" he said coldly. Typical really, that she should orb in the moment he said it.

"Right here." she said sourly, holding up and shaking a little bottle full of lilac coloured potion. "This is a stun potion, it should knock Bakura out of it long enough for us to get the Ring, then we can separate his soul from Ryou's."

"That didn't take you too long."

"I'm good."

"Lack of imagination."

"What?"

"You've said that already today."

"Repitition for effect."

"Crappy effect."

"Will you two stop it?" Nina hissed, her hackles raised with a vengence.

"NO!"

"Argh!" Seto turned on his heel and stormed out, his trechcoat conjuring a wind behind him. Nina stared at his retreating back, her face a picture of disbelief. She turned to Elizaveta.

"Hey what's that stare for???" she asked, folding her arms.

_DING DONG..._

Nina perked up and shot out of the room. A quick "What stare?" echoed from the foyer. Elizaveta sighed.

"_Pizza..._"

Roberts the butler, in a very Roberts-the-butler-y fashion, placed down the multi-coloured feather duster that he was brandishing and straightened his coat in preparation to answer the door. Too bad a certain boss got there first.

"Take that god-damn pizza away!!!!" he snapped, his eyes burning holes in the poor man on the doorstep. He slammed the door with such a vengence that Roberts the butler jumped, surprised that the door had not come off it;s hinges. Seto turned on his heel...

And stopped.

He stared blankly.

And opened the door again.

"Hello Kaiba-boy..."

_SLAM!!!_

_DING DONG..._

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**WildEm: Oooooooh dear, guess who showed up on the doorstep...**

**Seto: I hate you for doing that.**

**WildEm: Get used to it.**

**WildEm's glossary of terms.**

**WildEm: In case you didn't get it, it's quite complicated, so I'll explain a few things for you.**

**Whitelighter - 'human guardian angels'. To call themselves this they must have the powers of orbing, healing, and reconstitution. They constantly hear the lives of their charges in their heads, and can be there in a moment's notice if the charge calls for help.**

**Witch - fairly self explanatory - female human with powers.**

**Magician - male witch.**

**Demon - Creature resembling a human with evil powers. Can easily be vanquished, but are a real pain in the arse.**

**Necromancer - Evil magicians which have the power of resurrecting and controlling the Dead. Wield the eight bells of power.**

**Whitelighter Debate - Never-ending political debate as to whether whitelighters are human or not.**

**The Elders - The Overseers of good magic.**

**The Cleaners - Are responsible for 'cleaning' up magical trails left by careless magicians.**


	6. Pouvez vous m'aider?

**A CEO Scorned.**

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**WildEm: I have nothing to say now... And funnily, neither does he, of course that could just be because he has a gag tied around his mouth but hey, what's a girl to do?**

"speech"

_"thoughts"_

"_mindlink_"

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**Pouvez-vous m'aider?**

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"Oh come now Kaiba-boy, is that any way to treat an old friend?"

Seto felt sick.

"You..." he fumed, "You... You sick sick bastard how _dare _you come anywhere near this place..."

"Who's that...? Huh!!! Uncle Max!!!" Elizaveta yelled, knocking Seto out of the way and giving Pegasus a bear hug.

"Zdrasvidye moj dorogaja!" he said, returning the hug. **(A/N: meaning 'hello my dear' in Russian. Correct me if I'm wrong.)**

_THUD..._

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"Um... Bonjour, Péséraelle..."

The psychiatrist took a seat next the the woman's bed, and took out a pen. She watched him weakly.

"Aw ibek... uh... Bon...jour..."

"Je suis," he said slowly, pointing to himself, "Docteur Dujardin. Docteur Dujardin." he said again, pointing to his chest. She nodded and pointed at him.

"Docteur Dujardin." she said slowly. He nodded and smiled.

"Oui." he said, nodding up and down like a Jack in the Box. "Et, tu es Péséraelle." he pointed to her. She pointed to herself.

"Tu... es... Péséraelle?"

"Non." he shook his head violently. "Je. Suis. Docteur Dujardin. Donc..." he held her wrists and made her point to herself. "Je. Suis. Péséraelle."

"Je suis Péséraelle." she said. The psychiatrist grinned.

"Oui!"

_"Tieu..."_ she said under her breath.

"Tu es Docteur Dujardin?"

"Oui!!!"

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"Do you even _watch _the news, Kaiba-boy?"

"_Yes_!!!" Seto spat, glaring with all the force he could muster. Elizaveta chucked a cold flannel at him, which he caught with viscious reflexes and mopped his brow.

"And you, _didn't, _recognise the language that was coming out of her mouth?"

Seto didn't answer.

"I don't get it Uncle Max..."

Seto started choking.

Elizaveta continued. "... Why is there a problem? I mean, everyone who temporarily comes out of PVS talks gibberish, not that I can count many..."

Pegasus shook his head. "But this isn't gibberish. Far from it. Just because people don't recognise a language doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Or never _has _existed, I should say. She's talking Ancient Egyptian."

"Really?"

"Hm. And as Kaiba-boy here _is_ the reincarnation of an Ancient Egyptian High Priest, well..." he shrugged, "I thought he might be concerned."

"What concern is it to me? Some French woman came out of PVS. Alright. Good for her. I, don't care. And anyway why didn't you take it to the Pharaoh and his dweeb patrol, it sounds like it's just up their street. Or Ishizu, maybe? I'm not sure I'm qualified as a psychiatrist."

"Uh.." Pegasus began, "You and Ishizu are the only two to have fully retained the ability to understand the Egyptian language over the millennia, and the Pharaoh's is, patchy, to say the least."

Seto glared. "Why me?"

"Um, Ishizu doesn't speak French."

"You know, I swear if I could move right now I would murder you with my bare hands!!!"

"Why yes!"

Kaiba launched himself at Pegasus, but Elizaveta caught him and shoved him back down on the sofa on which he had been placed after having lost consciousness. Kaiba scowled.

"So, what do we do?" Elizaveta asked Nina.

"We still need to get rid of Bakura. I think you should split up. You can prepare the stuff to take Bakura but don't go on your own. And Master Seto, I would advise that you take a trip to France."

Seto groaned. He reached into his pocket, took out his mobile and began texting.

"What are you doing now?" Nina yowled.

"Texting." he said.

"_Mokuba, meet me the Kame Game shop when u get bck frm dinner. Dnt ask y, just take all ur stuff there. _

_Woteva u do, dnt come bck 2 the mansion - I'll tell u l8r. C u then. Seto_"

He pressed 'send' and flipped his phone down. Elizaveta got to her feet.

"Can I use your stuff for the potions?" she asked.

"Knock yourself out." he said, and then under his breath he muttered, "_Literally, please!_" He stood up, still glaring daggers at Pegasus. "I want a word with you."

Seto and Pegasus walked out into the garden, and Seto slammed the patio door shut, placing his hands on his hips in a way that gave no doubt as to who was controlling the situation.

"Right." he said, "What in the Hell makes you think I was born yesterday!!!" he seethed, "You come around to my house!!! To tell me about something I already know, nonetheless!!!! And then you ask me if I watch the news!!! Well, I got news for you, Pegasus, you can take your little act, and go and throw it _and _yourself off the top of the highest skyscraper you can find!!!"

"Kaiba..."

"NO!!! Pegasus!!!"

"Will you let me speak, please?"

"NO!!! And what's worse!!! You send your God-damn niece to..."

"She's not my 'God-damn niece'!!!" Pegasus said sharply. Seto was inwardly surprised. Was that, protectiveness there? "She's..." his voice faltered, "She's... Cecilia's niece..."

"Oh, so you're Uncle Max eh? That's a good one, but not that good."

"I wanted to ask something of you..."

"Oh now it comes out."

"Damn it Kaiba you know I did what I did for a reason!!!"

"I don't _care_ what reason you did it for!!! What you did was inexcusable!!!"

"Kaiba..."

"I don't want to hear any more. Get out of my sight NOW!!!"

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"Seto, why did you want me to stay here for a while?"

"It's, not safe at the mansion at the moment kid. Yugi and his grandpa will take care of you. And besides, I need to talk with the Pharaoh."

Seto marched up to the door of the game shop and rang the door-bell smartly. Both of them looked up as Yugi reached up to the chain at the top of the door and opened up.

"Kaiba! Mokuba!" he exclaimed.

"Can we talk Yugi?"

Yugi shrugged. "Well, sure." He opened the door wider and beckoned them inside, shutting the door silently behind them.

"So, uh, what can I help you with Kaiba?"

"I need you to take care of Mokuba for me for a while."

"How long?"

"I don't know, but it won't be long. It's not safe for him at home at the moment."

"Sure, he can stay here." he turned around briefly, "HEY GRANDPA, CAN YOU MAKE AN EXTRA HOT CHOCOLATE???!!!"

"Alright Yugi." Grandpa replied from somewhere around the back of the shop.

"And I need to talk to you and the Pharaoh about something." Seto said, folding his arms in the businesslike way that he had had drilled into his brain.

"Okay, come through into the lounge and take a seat. HEY ATEM, COME DOWN HERE A MINUTE!"

They all heard footsteps on the stairs, and soon the slim form of the former Pharaoh came into sight. Normal attire, thank Rê.

"Kaiba!" he said, acknowledging Seto's curt nod.

"He has his own body now?" Seto asked.

"Well, no, but spirits can become solid. You should've seen him the other day, he forgot and walked straight into a wall."

"Well hello there everybody." Grandpa came in juggling four mugs of hot chocolate, narrowly missing walking into the doorframe between the sitting room and the kitchen, "I see you've learnt your lesson." he said, turning to Seto.

"Some lessons are never learnt." he muttered.

"Mokuba, I've got to order some new stock. Your brother's company supplies us and has just brought out an entire new range and I could do with some professional advice on what to stock up on."

"Me?" Grandpa nodded, "Sure Mr. Motou!" Mokuba slid off the sofa and went next door with Grandpa. Yugi took the oppurtunity to speak.

"So, Kaiba, why isn't it safe at your house at the moment?"

"You'll never guess who showed up on my doorstep today." he said, semi-relaxing into the sofa.

"Who?"

"Pegasus."

"Pegasus?" Yugi's and Atem's expressions were classic.

"Hm." Seto nodded, "And I don't trust him any further than _you_ could throw him. You know Elizaveta Svyatoslaevna?"

"Yeah."

"I just found out that she's some distant relative of mine, and he is her uncle."

"Ouch."

Seto nodded. "Precisely. She and... I... have concerns about Bakura."

"We all have concerns about Bakura." said Atem scathingly. He had loathed the thief ever since he found out that he was the cause of the death of his most loyal Priest.

"He's not done anything recently though." said Yugi.

"I agree, but Bakura doesn't just do nothing, which means he's probably up to something, and am I right in saying that you want to cut it off before it gets messy?"

"Yes, so to speak." Seto said, "But we're more concerned about his occupation of the Millennium Ring. We all know he's not supposed to have it. Fate... And I really can't believe I'm saying this... Fate is no longer parallel to Destiny. Bakura was supposed to die 5000 years ago. Instead the Ring changed all that. If we seperate Ryou's soul from Bakura's and get rid of him, there is a good chance that we can revive the Ring's Master, which is how it's supposed to be."

"By 'getting rid' of Bakura, you mean kill him?" Yugi asked. Seto nodded.

"I have no objections to that." said Atem, crossing his legs, "He certainly deserves it. But how does Pegasus come into this?"

"Have you heard about that French woman, Péséraelle Lavoie, who's just woken up from PVS?"

"Yeah." Yugi and Atem said in unison.

"Well, he came around, and told me that. But, you know how people who wake up from states like this often talk gibberish for a while? Well this woman is talking Ancient Egyptian."

"So?"

"This I knew before he even knocked on the door. As you said, Pegasus doesn't do stuff like that. He knows very well that I know, so I'm worried that he's after something else. Which is why I want Mokuba here because it's not safe with Pegasus snooping around."

"But, Kaiba, if you can't protect Mokuba, what makes you think we can?" Atem asked.

"You have powers don't you? Use them!!!" he snapped.

"Alright who are you and what have you done with Kaiba?" Yugi said.

"I've been asking myself the same question."

Atem lay back in his chair and thought. Would now be a good time to give Kaiba the Rod? He gave a quick glance to the man who had gone from being mortal to having powers that he couldn't even come near to matching. Seth had been different. The same powers, but slightly less proud in the presence of friends. Kaiba was magically ready to receive the Rod, but was now a good time?

"_Aibou, do you think Kaiba is ready to receive the Rod?_"

"_Yes, but now?_"

"_If not now, then never, I would have thought._"

"_Alright. Go for it._"

"Wait here." said Atem, heaving himself off his chair and plodding back upstairs. Yugi and Seto waiting until he returned with the Rod wrapped in a red cloth.

"What's this?" he asked.

"I think you know." Atem said, unwrapping it. Seto stared. "It won't kill you."

"Tell that to yourself." he said. Atem laughed.

"That was always the difference between you and Seth." he said heartily, "The reason Seth was never quite as cold as you was because he had magic. He was content. Whereas you were so driven, so motivated, but you didn't have a direction in which to go. Magic was that direction. You're content now. You've changed. It's obvious, because if I'd been saying this to you a few months ago you'd have probably whacked me over the head with one of your shiny briefcases."

"Oi, hello? What part of I'm a little busy right now don't you understand?"

"What? You mean you _can't _handle it?"

"I never said that..."

"And, by the way, I know a certain High Priest who's gonna be very pissed off with you for making him wait. Take it from me, being shut up in a piece of metal for a few thousand years really gives you cramp in the legs..."

Yugi laughed. "I think that's a little off topic."

"Yeah okay, anyway, it will get back to you. And we would rather not be on the receiving end of Seth's wrath. So just take it."

"On one condition."

"That being?"

"Speak any French?"

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**WildEm: Bonjour. The French is really easy in this chappie. Basically Péséraelle and Doctor Dujardin establish how to say "I am -" and "you are -". I have to start things happening in this fic. Next chappie they go and see Péséraelle.**

**Seto: You can't be serious!**

**WildEm: You know me better.**

**Seto: (faints)**

**WildEm: Okay, we've gotta get over this...**

**Seto: (looks up from the floor) Review!!!**


	7. La flamme de mes souvenirs

**A CEO Scorned.**

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**WildEm: Heya, soz peeps, more French to contend with here, the song is the French version of 'Once Upon a December', 'Loin du froid de décembre' from the film Anastasia, but, and here's the cool bit, I've changed it a bit, instead of going 'loin du froid de décembre' - 'far from the cold of December', it now goes 'loin du froid dans les ombres' - 'far from the cold in the Shadows', and instead of 'une ancienne ritournelle' - 'an old ritornelle', it goes 'une ritournelle egyptienne' - 'an Egyptian ritornelle'. Geddit?**

**Seto: She's changed the song a bit to suit the fic. How sweet. **

**WildEm: You can bet your arse it is, I'm really proud of it!!! BTW, Hwt-Ka-Ptah is the Ancient Egyptian name for Memphis, so let's just say that's the capital for now.**

"Normal"

_"Thought"_

_"Ancient Egyptian dialect"_

_Dream_

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"Bonjour messieurs, puis-je vous aider?"

_"Smiley receptionist for a hosipital."_Seto thought as he and Atem walked into the Pasteur Hospital, Paris He hated hospitals - nasty, white places full of that disinfectant smell that just made you nervous.

Seto leant against the front desk. "Oui, nous avons un rendez-vous pour visiter Mam'selle Lavoie, à seize heures."

"Votre nom, s'il vous plait?"

"Kaiba."

"Oui monsieur, elle est dans la septième pièce, si vous vous assiez, s'il vous plait." she said, indicating towards the waiting room, before flipping over a few pieces of paper on a clipboard and getting up out of her seat.

"I repeat, Kaiba, in answer to your question, no, I do not speak French!" Atem whispered. Kaiba ignored him and continued.

"Nous n'sommes pas des patients, et si vous allons pour se préparer, ça ne sert pas a grand chose, elle est malade. N'ya rien que vous pourrions faire pour se préparer pour notre rendez-vous. C'est un peu fade, n'est ce pas? Maintenant, madame, si vous voulez être assez aimable?"

The receptionist looked like someone had just insulted her mother, but still managed to put on that receptionist-smile.

"Oui, bien sur messieurs, si vous me suivez."

Atem stared. "Huh? What did she say?"

Seto grabbed his collar and sort of half-picked him up, half-shoved him. "Come on." he said. The receptionist left them outside room seven and then promptly left with her nose in the air. Seto's face deteriorated when he heard her mutter something.

"_P'tit merde..._"

Smoke would have billowed from Seto's ears. "Vous m'êtes trop fichée!!!" he seethed, "Et j'en ai assez!!! Tenez ça pour la fin de votre carrière!!!"

"What did she say?" Atem asked, apparently unaware that Seto had just destroyed her career.

Seto scowled and opened the door, leaving Atem to follow him. It was just like what the media had been showing. The woman was sat up in bed with a drip in her arm, her head snapping up when she heard the door open.

"Bonjour mam-selle..." Seto said, "Je suis Seto Kaiba et voici mon... um... collegue, Atem."

_**Des images, me reviennent,**_

_**Comme un souvenir tendre,**_

Péséraelle looked between the two duellists, a confused expression on her face, but so weak that it could have fallen off at any minute. Big olive green eyes looked out from under a fringe that had grown so much that it was no longer a fringe, and framed the sides of her face. She looked between the two again, and her eyes widened even more.

_**Une ritournelle egyptienne,**_

_**Autrefois, dans les ombres,**_

_"I think I know you..."_ she said in Ancient Egyptian, and then shook her head, _"No, I am imagining it... _Uh... Bonjour."

_"What, did, you, say?"_ said Seto, unaware that he too had just switched languages. Péséraelle then stared blankly at him. She altered the blankets around her and heaved herself up straighter.

_"You can understand what I say?"_ she gasped, _"But... But... No one can!!!"_

Seto turned to Atem and asked in a very Seth-like way; "Am I speaking Ancient Egyptian?"

Atem looked to the side, and then back to Seto with a nod which said; "_yeah you are mate_". Seto frowned, before sighing.

"Alright, let's go for it. Um..._That is because the language is not spoken anymore."_

_"And yet you speak it? How?"_

_"It is the language of Ancient Egypt."_

_"You... You... You're..."_

_**Je me souviens, il me semble,**_

_**Des jeux qu'on inventait ensemble,**_

Atem blinked kindly and Seto narrowed his eyes. Péséraelle's eyes landed on the Millennium Puzzle around Atem's neck. She closed her eyes, and Atem shot forward to catch her as she began to slump forward, but she was jolted out of it before she fell forward too far. She blinked a few times and cradled her head in her hands.

"Are you okay?" Atem asked worriedly as she looked up again.

_"Atem...?" _she whispered, _"Seth...?"_

_**Je retrouve, dans un sourire,**_

_**La flamme de mes souvenirs,**_

"She remembers you, and Seth?" said Seto, reverting back to normal language.

"You mean you?"

"Shut up."

"I'm serious."

_"What language is that?"_ Péséraelle asked nervously.

_"The language that they have been teaching you is the modern language of Gaul. We're speaking a modern Britannian one."_ **(A/N: I don't do any form of Japanese, so English it is lol! And I don't think the Egyptians had a word for 'French', or 'English', so I improvised.)**

_"But... You look..."_

_"Paler? You could say."_ Atem chuckled.

_**Je me souviens il me semble,**_

_**Des jeux qu'on inventait ensemble,**_

_"Please, you have to help me escape. I cannot communicate with them properly, and they treat me like I am a child."_

Atem turned to Seto. "Kaiba, we have to get her out. It's our help she needs, not theirs."

Seto glared. "And what do you propose we do??? Hm? Bust her out of hospital? There is no way we would ever gain custody of her if they did let her out, which they won't do!!!" He ran a hand through his hair, "She'll only be in hospital until they're sure she won't go back into PVS again, then she can come out, but we can't gain custody of her. However if she wants to come, she can, she's twenty-four."

"How did you know that?"

Seto pointed to the chart hanging off the end of the bed.

_**Je retrouve dans un sourire,**_

_**La flamme de mes souvenirs,**_

_"How do you know us?" _Atem asked, his Egyptian still not perfect - he had only been there for a few days and was still retrieving memories.

_"I... I do not know!!!"_ she cried, before slouching in bed and folding her arms across her front, _"All I know is my name, my age, this language, which I do not know how I came to speak, and..." she began, "I... I... remember, when I was younger, wanting to be a doctor. I used to spend days in the surgery near where I lived... And then all I heard was a screeching... _Et puis j'étais ici."

Both Atem and Seto blinked. "Répetez, s'il vous plait?"

"J'ai dit que tant que j'ai entendu étaient les freins d'une voiture, et puis j'étais ici."

_**Et au loin,**_

_**un écho,**_

_**Comme une braise, **_

_**Sous la cendre,**_

"Continuez..."

"Je ne sais pas ce qui s'est produit. Je m'appelle Péséraelle Jeanette Lavoie, j'ai vingt-quatre ans, j'habitais un petit village près de Paris, je voulais être médécin..."

_**Un murmure, à mi-mots,**_

_**Que mon coeur veut comprendre,**_

"Péséraelle," Seto began, "Est-ce que vous pouvez souvenir des visions, ça veut dire, des rêves, de quand vous étaiez endormi?"

She lowered her eyes in thought. "Oui, un peu. J'étais ancienne egyptienne, mais ça c'est tout."

Atem smiled as Seto rather reluctantly translated for him. He took out a scrap piece of paper and placed it in her hand. "My phone number, call me if you have any more dreams like that." he said, extending his arm and handing her a folded up piece of paper.

"Quoi?"

Seto sighed. "Il dit qu'il veut que vous lui téléfonerai si vous avez des autres rêves comme ça, ça c'est son numéro de téléfon."

_**Une ritournelle egyptienne,**_

"Oui. Bien sur. Merci pour votre visite."

_**Loin du froid dans les ombres.**_

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**Dream:**

_She tensed as she heard a door latch close, and instictively gripped her knife more tightly, making it shake slightly in her grasp. It could just be one of those over-eager apprentices who thought they could cope with the higher level studies. On the other hand, it could be an intruder. Or, it could be one of the guards from Hwt-Ka-Ptah? If it was, she was going to give them a piece of her mind. No physicians were going back to Hwt-Ka-Ptah and they were going to accept that, whether they liked it or not. Holding her torch up, she strode into the next passage to take the hidden route in._

_She untangled herself from the various tapestries and adornments that covered the wall and straightened herself up. The moonlight flooded onto the area around the lecturn, and her breah caught in her throat. She was sure that she had pulled the drapes shut. She heard a shuffling, and tiptoed into the rows of shelves. Peering around, she saw the shadow of a figure on the white papyri, and gathered her courage. She whipped around the next shelf, and using the handle end of her knife, hit the man square on the back, deliberately hitting a nerve in his spine. With a pained 'ah' he dropped the papyrus he was holding and his knees buckled. As he fell, he swiped at her legs and knocked them from underneath her. In this split second he realised that it was a woman, and ceased his attack. She used her falling weight to shove him down and placed the blade of her knife against his neck, pinning him down with one knee either side of his waist. _

_"What are you doing here???!!!" she seethed, pressing the blade into his neck even more, "Who are you??!!!"_

_The young man seemed to become briefly aware of the position they were in, but also that there was a knife sticking in his neck. Let's prioritise now..._

_"What are you doing???" he demanded, and she glared at him with daggers sharper than the one at his throat. _

_"I asked you a question." she hissed._

_"I was sent here from Hwt-Ka-Ptah." he said calmly, noting that her accent was the well cultured one of Hwt-Ka-Ptah, like his own._

_Her expression turned to one of hate. "You are one of the Royal Guard, I thought as much."_

_"I am in charge of the Royal Guard." he said sharply, "I am a Priest."_

_"A Priest?" she gasped. Shit. She had just tackled one of Pharaoh's Sacred Guardians!!! One of only six!!! She was off him in a split second and backed up against the nearest shelf. He groaned as his back complained at his attempt to sit up. "Your... Your Eminence..." she stuttered, "Please forgive me..."_

_He scowled as he rubbed his back, and narrowed his eyes as he felt a strange sense of déjà vu. "Where did you learn to do that?" _

_"Here." she answered simply._

_"No, I mean using your weight. This is a Medical School, not a Fighting Arts Academy. You are a physician, not a magistrix." he said impatiently._

_"Home." she said simply, "My apologies, may I help you?" she said somewhat stiffly. She knelt down behind him, and felt for the nerve she had hit. She gave a quick flick with her finger and proceeded to massage it gently. He flinched sharply as it clicked back into place, and then relaxed as she eased the pain away. She stopped and stood up. "Better?"_

_He hesitated slightly, before tentatively getting to his feet. "Thank you."_

_"Forgive me for asking, your Highness, but, what is your name?"_

_"Priest Mahado." he said, standing up straight. He gave a queer look when he noticed that she had frozen as rigid as a board. her eyes were studying his face and eyes, and he narrowed them, "Are you alright?"_

_She had gone very pale. "__Wakhakwi...?" she whispered. The nickname which meant 'little fool'._

_"Peseshet?" he said quietly, "Is that you?"_

_"Mahado?" she said, tensing her lip, before taking on a grin, "Oh good Rê..." _

_The handsome Mage could only stare and say something along the same lines. _

_"I cannot believe it..." she whispered, her grin fading again, "I actually cannot believe it."_

_"Nor I..." he breathed._

_"You are the one wanting to take physicians back to Hwt-Ka-Ptah..."_

_"I must! We are in desperate need of more physicians!!! The Pharaoh is ill!!!"_

_"We have no one to spare! We are short-staffed as it is!" she cried, "But..." she sniffed, "Prince... Sorry! Pharaoh Atem..."_

_"Is sick, and if I cannot find a cure within the moontide then...Then, I know not what shall be."_

_"That is such a poor excuse Wakhakwi." she said, placing her hands on her hips, "There are plenty of highly trained physicians in Hwt-Ka-Ptah. I am not stupid." _

_"You were calling me 'your Eminence', and 'your Highness' a moment ago. What changed?" he said smugly, feeling like a thirteen year-old again. _

_"If you are so high and mighty Lord-Priest-Mage apprentice person then..."_

_"Oh just stop talking!" he said._

_"Make me." she challenged. She liked having her own back. There was no way in Hell he could stop her mouth. _

_"Still your tongue." he said authoritively, but she stuck it out at him._

_"What is the matter, 'your Eminence', have you no authority in you?"_

_From his expression it seemed to her that a crazy idea had just struck him, and just as he was about to dismiss it as totally out of the question, he thought that it actually, just might work. He put the mysterious sparkle into his violet eyes, and took slow steps towards her. As he came within three feet of her, she stepped backwards._

_"What are you doing?" she said, and her grin faded as her back hit the shelf. He placed his hands on her shoulders. What in Rê's name was he doing? He was so close that his body was brushing hers. Her eyes widened like saucers as she felt a warm pair of lips seal themselves over hers. She squirmed, only to feel him deepen it. She had little choice but allow his mouth to move hers. When he pulled away, he took a step back and smirked. _

_She stared._

_And stared._

_And stared. _

_And gawped._

_And stared some more._

_Mahado smirked and put his hands on his slender hips. "I think I win."_

_"That doesn't count."_

_"And why not?"_

_She flapped her arms. "Because it just doesn't!" he smirked again and she hunched her shoulders and shut her eyes, before exhaling sharply and continuing, "Anyway, why I came up here, you cannot take any of our physicans back to Hwt-Ka-Ptah..."_

_"Hwt-Ka-Ptah... Hwt-Ka-Ptah... Hwt-Ka-Ptah... Hwt-Ka-Ptah... ..."_

**End Dream;**

"Hmm... Huh?"

_"Qu'est-ce que c'était...?"_

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**WildEm: Heres the translation:**

**Song:**

**Images come back to me, **

**Like a tender memory,**

**An old Egyptian story,**

**Once upon a time, in the shadows.**

**I remember, it seems to me,**

**The games that invited us together,**

**I find again, in a smile,**

**The flame of my memories.**

**And far away, an echo,**

**Like a glowing ember**

**Beneath the ash,**

**A murmur, with half-words,**

**That my heart wants to understand,**

**An old Egyptian story,**

**Far from the cold in the shadows.**

**And conversation:**

**Kaiba and the shitty secretary; **

**:Hello sirs, can I help you?**

**:Yes, we have an appointment to see Miss Lavoie, at four o' clock.**

**:Your name, please?**

**:Kaiba.**

**:Yes sir, she's in room seven. If you will take a seat.**

**:We aren't patients. If you're going to get her ready, there's no point. She's ill. There's nothing you could do to make her ready for our appointment. It's a little pathetic, isn't it? Now, miss, if you would be so kind.**

**:Yes sirs, if you'll follow me. ... **_**Little shit.**_

**:You've annoyed me too much. And I've have enough. Consider this to be the end of your career!!!**

**Kaiba and Péséraelle:**

**:Hello miss, I'm Seto Kaiba and this is my... um... collegue, Atem.**

**:And then I was here.**

**:Could you repeat that?**

**:The last thing I heard was the brakes of a car, and then I was here.**

**:Continue...**

**:I'm Péséraelle Jeanette Lavoie, I'm twenty four, I used to live in a small village near Paris, I wanted to be a doctor...**

**:Can you remember any visions, that's to say, dreams, from while you were asleep.**

**:Yes, a bit. I was ancient Egyptian, but that was all.**

(Trans. for Atem:)** He wants you to call him if you have any more dreams, that's his phone number.**

**:Yes, of course, thank you for your visit.**

**P: Hmm... Huh? **_**What was that?**_

**Woohoo. I'm sorry about all that, I love French. Basically, Péséraelle is sort of living moments of being Egyptian, and moments of being French.**


	8. Bye Bye Bakura

**A CEO Scorned.**

**£**

**£**

**WildEm: God it took me so long to write this up.**

**Seto: You're telling me!**

**WildEm: Oh, and, I got a new bishie!**

**Seto: WHAT???!!!**

**Atem: Hiya!!!**

**Seto: I thought you didn't go for short bishies!**

**WildEm: Yeah... Well... Oh c'mon, he's only here to wind you up!**

**Seto: What? You mean I have to work, and spend my free time with him as well???!!**

**Atem: (sweatdrops)**

**WildEm: Behave yourselves!!! ... (slaps forehead) I didn't mean it in that kind of way... Oh, BTW, beware Seto's language in this chappie. He um, doesn't mind telling Pegasus **_**exactly**_** what he thinks of him... **

"speech"

"_Computer talking_"

_"telephone conversation"_

**£**

**Bye Bye Bakura**

**£**

"You didn't have to be so like that to my uncle." Elizaveta scorned as Seto walked back in through the door after having dropped Atem off at the Game Shop. She didn't even look up from her potion-making as the door slammed shut.

"Svyatoslaevna, give me one reason, _one, fucking, reason, _why on Earth I shouldn't send your 'uncle's' sorry soul straight into the nastiest level of Purgatory, hm? Go on then. Why?"

Elizaveta's lip tightened. "Everybody does something for a reason." she scowled, her voice low as she picked up some mandrake root and threw it into the pan, "You should know that better than anyone."

"Are you that oblivious that you failed to notice his entire demeanour? He's insane. He's twisted and evil. I would have thought that you'd be able to see that."

She snorted. "Well you know..." she said, "A lot of people think that about you."

That hit a nerve.

"How _could you even __**think**_of comparing me to _**him**_???"

"He _loved_ my aunt, Kaiba! It's not a crime to love someone! What would you do? Hm? If it had been Serenity? Would you not have gone beyond the Nineth Gate of Death and back to revive her? He's had a few setbacks..."

Seto snorted.

"It was the Eye!!! Not him!!! Really, he's alright now!!!"

"Svyatoslaevna, he's not really your uncle."

"He is to me! And I won't give up on him!"

"Then what was he doing here earlier???!!! He can't have come around just to tell me about something that's been on the front page of every newspaper for the past week! Which, means he's up to something. Your uncle or not. I don't care!!!"

"He wanted to ask you something..."

"I know."

"Oh, so he told you?"

"No, I kicked him off the premises before I had the misfortune of hearing it."

Elizaveta pulled a scowling face. "For your information..." she said, putting down her potion ingredients and slamming her hands on the table, "He wanted to ask you if there was any chance of knowing whereabouts Aunt Cecelia is in Death..."

"She died. Can't he just get over it?"

"You can talk, look at yourself in your past life."

"Look..." he said, putting his thumb to his other index finger as if ticking items off a list, "She doesn't have a body to return to, it's rotting in a grave somewhere. Second, even if she had, souls change in Death. Only the purest souls keep their physical appearance and personalities in Death. She died years ago, if she hasn't passed the Nineth Gate by now, the chances are that she's not the Cecelia he knew."

"He just wants to say _goodbye_ to her!!!" she shrieked, "Is there something so wrong about that??? You don't know how he's been taunted Kaiba!!! By her death and the Millennium Eye! I know he kidnapped your brother and tried to take over your company and sealed your souls away, but he's always been, and always will be my uncle and he has _always_ been good to me!!! He's a good man..." she took a softer tone, "And he just wants a chance to prove it. To her, and to you. And I don't want..."

Elizaveta's eyes fell and she looked saddened. Her grip on the kitchen worktop loosened.

"You don't want what?" Seto asked, slightly wondering what was causing these moodswings of hers.

"I don't want him to take his own life." she said quietly, "I guess to you that would be too much to ask for."

Seto sighed, thinking that it was best to change the subject. "How's that potion going?" he asked sharply. She regained her composture and bit her lip.

"It's nearly done, it just has to simmer."

"How long for?"

She shrugged as she picked up an apple from the fruit basket and took a bite out of it's red flesh.

Seto said nothing and went to his beloved study, his sanctuary, and locked the door. He booted up the computer and was immediately greeted by an all too familiar voice.

"_Sheesh Seto how long are you gonna keep a Computer in the dark for???_"

"Seeing as you seem to be the only one around here with any enthusiasm, log on and get up my e-mails." he said, easing himself into the soft computer-chair infront of his flat-sceen PC. It, no, she, had been improved by KaibaCorp as one of Seto's early experiments with his technology, but she had managed to develop a character of her own. He had at first been worried that he had created a monster. Fortunately, she had remained, as she liked to call it, his friend throughout. And if Seto didn't know better, he would say that she was rather fond of Mokuba and himself. However, she was a computer wasn't she.

"_What's on your mind Seto? Pegasus has been sending you copious e-mails. Wonder what the berk wants?_"

Seto inwardly smirked. "Let's see them. And load ICQ Messenger."

"_Sure thing._"

Seto read the e-mails through - they were basically re-sends of the original, which was a rambling of how he wasn't evil. He logged into ICQ and sent a message.

::BlueEyesWhiteDragonMaster: Pegasus, get your butt online.

He pressed send, and in seconds the reply came through:

ToonKing : What is it Kaiba?

::BluesEyesWhiteDragonMaster: Your "niece" told me your testimony. So what else?

ToonKing : What else?

::BlueEyesWhiteDragonMaster: Look, forget it Pegasus. She's gone. Seeing her again will only open up a nasty can of worms. Sorry, but get bent.

Seto logged off and slumped in his chair.

"_That wasn't a nice thing to say._"

"He's not deserving of any pleasantries." Seto said plainly. His voice devoid of any care. He turned his head around as he heard a brisk rapping on the door.

"Kaiba!!!" Elizaveta shouted, "Open this bloody door, Nina's got some Chinese in and this potion's done."

Reluctantly, he heaved himself up and opened the door.

"_Fine! Waste my battery why don't you?_" the Computer scowled. Elizaveta narrowed her eyes and tried to peer around Seto's shoulder.

"You work on mains power!!!" he snapped.

"Did that computer just talk?" she asked, blinking a few times.

"No." he said, and tried to shove her out of the doorway, but the Computer busted him again.

"_Well maybe I don't like you so much either!!!_"

Seto glared. "Pizza first! Bakura second! Computer third!!!" he said, before pushing her away and closing the door behind him.

£

£

Meanwhile, in his giant mansion that all multi-millionaire CEOs have, Pegasus cradled his head in hands, before letting it fall forward onto the keyboard. When the 'error' sound came on, he didn't move. He just let the vibrations travel in and out of his mind, hoping that they might take some of his sorrow with him. Eventually, when he realised that it wasn't working, he picked himself up and flopping down onto his four-poster bed, letting salty tears leak into the silk pillows. Maybe he was wrong to go to the new Abhorsen. Maybe he should just put it behind him and move on.

But the point was, that he couldn't.

He touched his face softly where his eye had been. It was no use. He just couldn't.

He sighed and pulled out his phone, which read '1 message received' on the screen. Sender: 'Liza':

_"Hi Uncle Max Kaiba & I r goin 2 vanquish Bakura now, I'll work on him bout Aunt C l8r. Kimo ordered more food in dis am, get urself sum comfort food and relax. Croquet can take care of the company 4 a while. I'll b back not l8r than 9:30! C u then! Liza XxX"_

Pegasus shook his hair out of his face and looked at the clock. It read 10:30. So where was she? He couldn't keep living if his niece died - and Bakura was dangerous. And she was never late. There was something wrong. He shut the computer down and grabbed his red jacket, heading for the door.

£

£

"Are you sure he hangs around here?" Seto asked, pulling his trenchcoat around him.

Elizaveta pulled the piece of pizza away from her mouth and whispered. "Yeah, and there shouldn't be anyone else here to see or get hurt."

Both teenagers were crouching behind a dusty crate in an old rundown alleyway, Elizaveta still with a piece of ham and pineapple pizza in her hand. It was dark and damp. He could see why a person like Yami Bakura would hang out here. It was just up his street. Literally. Elizaveta then shoved his head down, straining his spine as she did so - his height was a massive giveaway, and she made him sit on his trenchcoat to stop it from giving the game away. This was too important now.

"Eh, uh, so why are we 'ere again?"

Seto stiffened, as did Elizaveta.

"Oh fuck no!!!" he whispered, and Elizaveta mouthed something in Russian that was vaguely along the same lines.

Joey.

And the rest of Yugi's groupies.

Seto gasped.

And Mokuba.

Mokuba was there with the others. Why the Hell wasn't he at the Game Shop, safe with the Motous? Seto was ready to walk out there and throttle Yugi, or Yami, whichever, until the death for letting Mokuba walk straight into the lion's den. He didn't think that anyone could be that stupid. Obviously, Yugi had managed it. Seto couldn't stand it.

"Mokuba!" he shouted, pacing out from behind the crate and over to the group, leaving Elizaveta leaning over the crate still eating her pizza.

Joey was the first to realise. "Hey 'dere Moneybags, whatcha doin' behind an old crate?"

Seto ignored him and grabbed Yugi by the coatcollar. "You!!!" he fumed, "Were supposed to take care of him!!! Not bring him into the hornet's nest you bloody idiot!!!"

"Um, Kaiba... Could you put me down, please?"

Seto realised that he was holding the smaller teen about two feet off the ground, and let go of his coat. Yugi fell, only to be caught by Tristan and Téa.

"Oof..." he said as he landed, "So what are you guys doing here?"

"Well..." said Elizaveta, swallowing her bite of pizza, "We came to vanquish Yami Bakura. You guys really ought to go, it's not safe for you."

"Can we help?" asked Téa.

Elizaveta shook her head. "Sorry Téa, it's just, we aren't allowed to let anything happen to you, it's sort of an honour-bound thing, to protect innocents. If you guys get hurt, or worse, killed, it's our fault. Just let us handle it, okay?"

"Oh, but I couldn't possibly allow you to get away with _that_."

It seemed like darkness had fallen over the alleyway, and all of them were touched by a shiver that could only be provoked by one person.

"Bakura." Elizaveta growled lethally, she and Seto standing between him and the others. Bakura raised an eyebrow.

"Elizaveta Svee-yah-tah-slev-na isn't it?"

"It's S-vee-yah-tohs-lah-ive-nah."

"I never could pronounce your name." he chuckled darkly before doing to evil sing-song voice, "And you brought all your little friends too I see? Good, I like vanquishing mortals, good for the self-confidence."

"It's _over_, you _sick bastard_." she snarled.

Bakura smirked, closed his eyes lightly, and shrugged. "Bring it on."

£

£

Seto crouched behind a crate again as a fireball came hurtling his way, blasting a hole in it and sending shards of wood flying in all directions. Elizaveta flicked her wrists and blasted him, making him fall back in pain.

"Careful, expell him first, we don't need Ryou in casualty!!!" he called, before looking to Yugi, "Yugi get outta here!!!"

Yugi's head appeared from behind a wheelie bin. "No, not without you guys!!!"

"Don't be stupid!!! Get the others out you useless idiot or you'll all be killed!!!" he hissed, before turning his concentration back to the battle, where Bakura was putting up more of a fight than they had expected and stray attacks were flying everywhere. Seto had to orb in and out to avoid being blown to pieces. The group had been split up - Yugi, Tristan and Téa were behind the wheelie bins, and Mokuba, Serenity and Joey were right up against the wall just behind a discarded tall shelf-stacking trolley. Trying to make a break for it and join the others was out of the question.

Seto and Elizaveta began to dominate the fight - Seto had begun to let 5000 year-old knowledge seep back into his mind, and his responses to Bakura's attacks and his own attacks became much more fluent and quicker, adrenaline and Magic took over completely, giving him the thrill that he never thought that he would enjoy so much. Bakura began to weaken, his breathing became audiable and his power slowly running out. Seto took this oppurtunity, and closed his eyes and put his fingers to his temples. He felt his psychokinetic power inside him ignite and spread over him like a fire. Items in the alley began to shake, smash, and levitate off the ground. A magical blue colour surrounded his body like slow-moving fire, and he closed his eyes a little tighter. An identical blue light formed around Bakura, hoisting him up into the air. He squirmed and fought, but he was no match. Seto simply held him in place.

"Now." he breathed, his voice disappearing into his concentration. Elizaveta took out a piece of paper and a vial of potion. She threw the potion at the ground beneath Bakura and it became a violet coloured smoke which seemed to seep into his skin, making him writhe around even more. She unfolded the paper:

"Two warring souls now burn inside,

Where only one of which can reside,

From whence he came,

Return him now,

Expell his soul,

Regardless how."

Bakura began to wrench as if he were going to be sick. Finishing the spell, Elizaveta returned it to her pocket, when a glimpse of red caught her eye.

"Uncle Max!!!" she yelled, "Get outta here!!! Go!!!"

Bakura screamed something which sounded like 'no', and suddenly, his soul separated from Ryou's body, which Seto lowered gently to the ground. The spirit became solid and fell, hitting the ground hard, but getting up again with murderous eyes.

"You'll pay for that!!!" he snarled.

From that moment on, it was as if no one could hear anything. Bakura formed a dark energy ball in his hand, his eyes trained in on his target like a marksman's would. Seto whipped around, and he felt his legs begin to move. His brain hadn't even fully registered why. He would get there in time. He would get there in time. He would. He would. He would.

The energy ball left Bakura's hand...

Seto held out his hand... He wasn't fast enough... He wasn't going to make it... Although he wasn't the only one who had seen...

He screamed and fell as he realised that he wasn't going to make it, his fear exploding from his body in a shock wave of the blue aura-like psychokinetic energy knocking everybody over. Crates shattered and crumbled into dust, A million tiny cracks appeared in the concrete paving stones on the ground and the water pipes supplying water to the nearby houses burst underneath the slabs and sprays of water pushed themselves up to the surface. Anything that wasn't broken began to vibrate violently and hover off the ground. Thick dust was in the air, and as it gradually began to clear, a tall, once elegant figure lay sprawled out on the floor. Unmoving.

Quite obviously dead.

Serenity turned Mokuba's head away from the nasty mess as the rest of the group stared in disbelief.

"Oh... My... God..." Elizaveta ran over to the scene. Seto coughed a few times and raised his cheek away from the cold tarmac, a small graze over his cheekbone. A surge of relief passed through him as he saw his brother sitting up on the floor, coughing in the dust and nursing a bruise on his left arm where he had been pushed over. Next, he saw Elizaveta kneeling on the ground, tears pouring down the sides of her face. He began to heave himself up, on his ascent seeing Bakura fighting the urge not to burst out into mad laughter. Seto frowned sadistically, his anger flaring again. He closed his eyes and formed a shield of blue psychokinetic energy, blocking off the exit to the alleyway and shielding the others from anymore attacks. He took three, slow, powerful steps towards the former Thief, never breaking the icy, lethal eye contact. His Charter Mark flashing from beneath his fringe.

Three words.

"Bye Bye, Bakura."

"Ashes to ashes,

Spirit to spirit,

Take his soul,

Banish this Evil."

Bakura looked at his palms to see that his transparent form was beginning to swirl and distort, as what looked like a white sandstorm began to wrap itself around him. Seto covered his eyes and got behind the shield as Bakura let out a blood curdling scream...

From the scream came silence.

Seto breathed a sigh of relief.

He was gone.

Gone. God that was a thought.

The Millennium Ring fell to the ground with a clunk which resounded and echoed off the alleyway walls. Along with the sound of dripping water, scurrying rats, and sobbing...

Wait...

Sobbing?

"Elizaveta..."

The words somehow stuck in his throat as he made an attempt to swallow the lump that was blocking them. He wasn't sure if she had even heard him, and it seemed likely that she hadn't.

Why?

Why had he done it?

Seto knew that he had been crazy, but...

He couldn't help but hold his head low. _"Pegasus... You old fag..."_ he thought, before squatting on his haunches next to his little brother, still unable to make the words come out of his mouth. Finally, after a long silence, he forced out;

"I think..." he said, "I think, we shouldn't, revive him."

Elizaveta looked up at him with bloodshot eyes and a blotchy face, and something that resembled loathing. Serenity knelt down and put her arm around her affectionately, fighting the urge to cry herself.

"Ssh, it's okay, it's gonna be okay..." she hushed.

Seto closed his eyes. That energy ball had been meant for his brother, there was no doubt about it.

"He's with your aunt now." he said calmly, before recovering his demeanour, "I think she needs some space." he said abruptly, "Get out of here. All of you."

Joey held his hand out towards his sister. "Ya comin' sis?"

Serenity looked up at Seto, and then back to Elizaveta, before asking; "If you don't want me to stay, then..."

Elizaveta sniffed and wiped her nose. "You can stay."

"Please." Seto added at the end, a very nasty sense of concern creeping into his whisper. Joey glared at him profusely, before turning around until his neck couldn't bend around to glare anymore, and exiting silently with the others. "Can I have your phone?" Seto asked, and she pulled it roughly out of her pocket and threw it at him hard. He caught it with expert reflexes and scrolled down her list of numbers, pressing 'call' when he saw the name 'Croquet'. He held it to his ear, the silence slowly torturing him. Finally, someone picked up.

"Croquet? Seto Kaiba..."

The next few minutes saw a coroner and a band of Pegasus' goons standing at the scene, blue flashing lights rotating on the top of police cars, and frantic voices and shuffling footsteps. Mokuba, Serenity, Seto and Elizaveta watched them blankly as they carried the body into a waiting ambulance. Seto clenched his fists, before looking up to the ambulance again. Just as the doors clanged shut for the last time, the quietest of words escaped his mouth.

"Thank you..."

£

£

The funeral was held a month later, with, although Seto was not surprised to see, only a few people attending. Croquet was more emotional than a right-hand man should be, he thought, until Elizaveta explained that Croquet had known and cared for Pegasus ever since he was a tiny child. Kimo was trying to be strong, but occasionally the big goon would pull out a hankerchief and blow his nose.

Afterwards, as they were walking out into the carpark, Seto's phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He flipped it up.

"Kaiba."

_"Kaiba? It's Atem."_

_"Oh great."_ Seto rolled his eyes and put the phone back to his ear.

"What is it?" he asked annoyedly.

_"I've got Péséraelle Lavoie on the other line. I think. I don't understand what she's saying. Can I put her through to you?"_

"Whatever." he grumbled as the line clicked and a French voice came through the earpiece.

_"Bonjour, Monsieur Kaiba?"_

"Bonjour Mam'selle. Puis-je vous aider?" he said, in a sarcastic voice.

_"Je vous telephonais pour vous dire que je quitte l'hôpital demain, et... J'avais ces rêves encore, puis-je parler avec vous?"_

Seto mentally squirmed. "Je n'ai pas le temps à ce moment..." thinking quickly, he said, "Mais, trouvez quelqu'un qui peut traduire pour vous, et parlez avec Atem. Il n'y a pas grand chose que je peux faire."

_"D'accord." _

£

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**WildEm: Aw, I killed off Pegasus, ... Oh well... He did it protecting Mokuba, which I thought was quite sweet.**

**Seto: Halle-flippin-lujah!!!**

**WildEm: French Translation.**

**P: Hello Mr. Kaiba.**

**S: Hello miss, can I help you?**

**P: I phoned you to say that I'm coming out of hospital tomorrow and I've been having these dreams again, can I talk with you?**

**S: I don't have time at the moment. Find someone who can translate for you, and talk to Atem. There's not much I can do.**

**P: Okay. **


	9. Je t'ai aimé avant

**A CEO Scorned**

**£**

**£**

**WildEm: Wow. And here we are. The title is French for 'I've loved you before'.**

**All credit for writing the duel and the moments leading up to the duel goes to ****Illidan the Half Demon**** who wrote all of that for me. Thank you soooooo much for it, it's perfect. Now, **_this chapter takes place a few months after everything else _**because Péséraelle has to get her life back together before she could go and see them, but I didn't think you'd want to wait for the months while she does that, so, knock yourselves out... Not literally, Atem.**

**Atem: (backs away from the wall)**

**Seto: Idiot. WildEm would like to say thank you to the following:**

**- ****Isis the Sphinx****, for being great, and always reviewing, and suggesting improvements for Péséraelle's character. **

**- ****Illidan the Half Demon****, for writing the majority of this chapter and the fantastic duel. You rock.**

**- ****moonangel93****, for all her fantastic reviews,**

**- ****Kuyeng13****, for her reviews. And WildEm did check out your suggestion, although she wanted the bishie to be from YGO. Still, he was hot... I'm quoting.**

**- And anyone else who reviewed. Thank you thank you blah blah blah, now can we get on with the chapter?**

**WildEm: Oh, and before peeps go saying Péséraelle's a Mary Sue, she isn't, because if you can read, you'll realise that she is a major know-it-all and is by nature a bit nerdy and goes very sour on people who best her. Otherwise, she's okay. Just don't beat her in any exams... Not that you would anyway, she's got brains to rival Seto's.**

**Seto: Hey!**

"speech"

_"thoughts"_

"_Computer talking_"

_"Dark Magician talking"_

**(Translation)**

**£**

**£**

**Je t'ai aimé avant.**

**£**

**£**

_"Il n'a pas le temps! Je n'ai pas le temps!!! Pourquoi est-ce-que j'ai accepté à venir ici? Atem était trop persuasif quand il m'a demandé à venir."_ **("**_**He doesn't have time! **_**I **_**don't have the time!!! Why did I agree to come here? Atem was too persuasive when he asked me to come."**_

Gazing out the window of the bus, Péséraelle lightly sighed. _"Pourquoi est-ce que je suis même ici? Je devrais rester chez-moi pour étudier pour mes examens, au lieu de chercher cet enfant!!!"_ **("**_**Why am I even here? I should be home studying for my exams, not running around looking for this kid!"**_

Sighing once more, she closed her eyes, resting her forehead on the window. Small, fragments of images of a young man flashed through her mind. His expression seemed happy when he saw her. He had tan skin, beautiful lilac coloured eyes, had chesnut hair, and wore a set of white robes with various golden adornments.

Opening her eyes once more when she felt the bus slowing, she pondered on the image. "_Why does that man keep coming up in my mind? Ever since I woke up from the PVS, I keep thinking of him. I think he was even in it during the PVS. I don't understand!!! I've never seen him before!!! And why could they understand me when I was talking gibberish? Why did I call them by their names when I'd never seen them before! _

_It's all so confusing._"

Glancing out the window, she saw she had arrived at her destination. Standing up, she walked to the bus doors. Upon opening, she stepped out in front of one of the rather fancy Kaiba Corporation buildings.

Moving forward, she calmly entered the building and went to the front desk. Seeing a receptionist at a computer there, she smiled when the girl asked "May I help you?"

"Oui, I'm here to see Monsieur Kaiba. He asked me to come to see him today." she coolly replied.

Turning to her computer, the girl typed something and smiled. Returning, she asked "You are Miss Péséraelle Lavoie, correct?"

Nodding in response, Péséraelle replied kindly "Oui, I am."

"Mr. Kaiba is expecting you in Room 12." the young woman said with a smile.

"Merci."

Walking away, Péséraelle saw the many duelists that had come to the building. Slightly smiling, she pondered about her own dueling skills. "_I haven't been duelling very long, a couple of months or so. He can't seriously have asked me all the way over here just to duel me! Oi, this all just gives me a headache._"

Arriving at Room 12, she began to knock, but decided to instead just enter. Opening the door, she saw a group of people within the room. She recognized two of them immediately as the pair that had come to see her when she woke up a few months ago. The others, she had no clue whom they were, although one seemed to nearly be an exact double of one of the pair that had come to see her.

Clearing her throat, the group turned to her and smiled. The shorter young man she had met before walked straight towards her and offered his hand.

"It's good to see you again." he warmly said.

Staring at his face, she pondered for a moment what his name was, until finally it came back to her. Smiling back, she replied "It's good to see you again too Atem."

Nodding to the young man in a white trench coat, she added "It's good to see you too Monsieur Kaiba."

"_Monsieur_ Kaiba? Dat's a first!" a boy with messy blond hair and a Brooklyn accent said.

"Whatever." Seto grumbled back.

A tall girl with dark brown hair and even darker eyes spoke up. Her voice had a faint Russian accent. "Oh, don't mind him, he's just sour because sales are in defecit at the moment."

She cleared her throat, prompting Atem to begin introductions. "These are my friends. I'd like you to meet Yugi, Joey, Téa, Tristan, Duke, Serenity, Mokuba, and Elizaveta."

All eight smiled and said hello. Smiling back, Péséraelle replied "Bonjour, it's nice to meet all of you. My name is Péséraelle."

"Did you learn English 'den?" the blond boy called Joey spoke up.

Péséraelle almost sweatdropped, but hid it behind a disappointed face. "I'm sorry would you prefer it if I spoke French?" she asked sarcastically.

Joey waved his hands around and rubbed the back of his neck. "Nah! Sorry it's just ya learnt it real good, 'dat's all."

"Why thank you." she said. Deciding to get down to business, she asked, "Why did you ask for me to come here?"

"For a duel." the lookalike to Atem spoke up.

Frowning, she responded wistfully with "You dragged me all the way over here from Paris for a duel?"

Nodding, the boy replied "Yes, we did."

"You're… Yugi, right?" she asked, being somewhat self-conscious.

"Yes." he simply replied.

"Why a duel? Couldn't you find anyone else? I have important things to do you know, like study for exams!" Péséraelle remarked with a tint of irritation.

"Exams? How are old are you then?" Elizaveta asked.

"I'm twenty-four."

"So how come you're doin' exams 'den?" said Joey.

"I'm currently studying Medicine at _the_ University of Sorbonne. And my exams are coming up in six weeks time, in fact, I don't even know why I'm here..."

Eilzaveta gasped. "_The_ University of Sorbonne?" Péséraelle nodded, somewhat proudly.

Softly smiling, Yugi said, "I wished to duel with you. Just one duel, that's all I ask."

Lightly annoyed, Péséraelle answered "Fine, but once it's over, I'm going home."

"Very well. Do you have a deck?" Yugi lightheartedly asked.

Pulling a deck out of her inner coat pocket, she shook it in front of him, saying "Oui, bien sûr."

"Good. Kaiba, do you have a Duel Disk she can borrow?"

Grumbling, Seto pulled one off the wall and tossed it at Péséraelle, who expertly caught it. "Good catch." he muttered.

"Nice throw." she responded wistfully.

"Yugi..." Elizaveta whispered, bending down a little so she could whisper in his ear, "To be studying Medicine, at the Sorbonne, having just come out of PVS no less, she's gotta be really really seriously clever. Expect lots of mega-complex stratagies"

Yugi nodded. "Shall we?" he asked, motioning towards the dueling stage.

"Let's just get this over with." Péséraelle replied with a tint of irritation.

Together, the pair walked onto the stage and took their places. Meanwhile, the group, other than Seto and Mokuba, crowded around the stage to watch. Seto and Mokuba each took a seat at the controls of the dueling stage.

"Ready?" Mokuba asked cheerfully.

Both Yugi and Péséraelle shuffled their decks and jammed them into their Duel Disks. Together, Yugi said "yes", while Péséraelle said "oui".

"Starting up hologram systems then. The duel stage will rise, so hang on." Mokuba replied in a monotone voice.

Slowly, the dueling stage rose up about four feet before coming to rest. Small hologram generators on the side of the dueling stage opened up and began to glow with rainbow colored lights.

Simultaneously, Péséraelle and Yugi's Duel Disks came to life, each flipping out and becoming a solid blade with their life point counters rising to 4000. Each drew their first five cards, saying "Let's Duel!"

Drawing her sixth card, Péséraelle smiled, saying "Ladies first. I set a monster in defense."

A hologram image of a vertical card appeared onto the field, showing no signs of what the card actually was.

"I think that's a decent start. Your move." (Péséraelle 4000, Yugi 4000)

Picking up his sixth card, Yugi studied it for a moment before saying "I summon Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (1400/1200) in attack mode."

Materialising onto the field was a young elf with blonde hair, fair white skin, a green helmet, a blue cape, and brown and tan clothing. In his hands was a single broad sword.

"Attack her monster with Silver Blade Slash!" Yugi called out to his monster.

Letting out a grunt, the elf ran forward with his heavy boots tromping the ground. Nearing his target, he leapt into the air, cape flowing behind him. Coming down hard, he slashed the horizontal card in half.

From the two slashed pieces of the card, a mage with blonde hair that stood up somewhat, a red bandanna that was somewhat long in the back, purple body armor that covered it's body (other than it's arms), and had a green staff came flying out. The young mage instantly exploded into millions of pieces, leaving Péséraelle alone on her field.

Smirking, Péséraelle calmly said "Nice attack Yugi, but it was a bad mistake. By attacking and destroying my Apprentice Magician (400/800), you've activated it's effect. Now I can special summon a new level two or lower Spellcaster from my deck to the field in face down position."

Picking her deck up, she quietly sorted through it till finally a card made her lightly smirk. Pulling it out of her deck, she slapped the card horizontally onto her Duel Disk, causing a new horizontal face down card image to appear. Shuffling her deck, Péséraelle placed it back within her deck slot.

Glancing at his hand, Yugi picked a card out and stuck it into the spell/trap card slot, saying "I lay this face down to end my turn." (Péséraelle 4000, Yugi 4000)

Drawing her next card, Péséraelle smiled, calmly saying "I play Pot of Greed. This spell allows me to draw another two cards."

Picking up two more cards, she examined them before saying "I flip summon my face down monster, so come on out Magician of Faith (300/400)."

A young female mage with long pink hair held back in a pony tail that wore purple and pink robes with a yellow cord belt, and a long golden staff with a crescent moon at the top of the staff in her hand emerged onto the field.

"Thanks to flip summoning her, I'm allowed to add one spell card from my Graveyard to my hand, so I pick Pot of Greed."

Slowly, the spell card slid out of the Graveyard slot and into Péséraelle's waiting hand. "Since I just got this card back, I think I'll play it again, so two more cards for me."

Drawing two more cards, she examined them. After a moment's consideration, she called out "I sacrifice my Magician of Faith for Mobius the Frost Monarch (2400/1000).

The young pink haired mage vanished in a flash. In her place, a light blue armored creature with a long flowing blue cape, some darker blue armor on his hands and knees, and a strange helmet covering it's head appeared. The room temperature seemed to sink a few degrees upon the arrival of the ice creature.

"When I summon Mobius, his special ability kicks in, allowing me to destroy up to two spell or trap cards. Since you only have one Yugi, I can take it out!"

Opening his palm towards Yugi's face down, the ice creature released a blast of cold snow filled wind, which flipped the face down card up, revealing it to be a trap.

"No, my Mirror Force!" Yugi cried out with shock.

"Too bad, you could have saved your monster. Oh well, moving on. I play the spell Upstart Goblin, which allows me to draw one card, but you gain 1000 life points."

Picking up another card, Péséraelle smiled, and coolly said "Time for me to activate my equip spell Megamorph! So long as your life points are higher than mine, my monster's attack points are doubled. However, whenever your life points are lower than mine, my monster's attack points are halved. Since currently you have more life points, that means Mobius's points double (2400 2 4800/1000). Mobius, attack his little elf with Frosty Fist!"

Leaping into the air, the ice creature came flying down with it's cave flapping in the wind. The elf and the ice monster made contact soon enough, with the elf holding his sword out in front of his body.

Lightly gasping in shock as the elf's sword managed the hold off, Péséraelle asked with confusion in her voice, "Why isn't the sword breaking?"

"My Celtic Guardian has a special ability. He can survive any battle with a monster that has 1900 or more attack points, so your iceman has no power to destroy him." Yugi calmly answered.

Frowning for a moment, Péséraelle then smiled, saying "True, but your life points are affected."

Yugi lightly winced as his body began to slightly glow darkly, reducing his life points. Once the darkness dissipated, the iceman's body began to glow with a small dark glow as well.

"My life points may have taken a good hit, but your iceman just lost half his strength." Yugi stated.

Lightly chuckling, Péséraelle nodded, saying "This is true Yugi. Mobius has lost half his original strength (4800/2 2400/2 1200/1000). Still, I'm not through yet. You see, even though Mobius is weakened, I'm not going to allow him to remain that way. I activate the spell Gryphon's Feather Duster, which destroys all of my spell and trap cards. Once that is done, I gain 500 life points per a card destroyed. I only have my Megamorph card, so I gain 500 points, thus fixing Mobius's attack points (1200 2 2400/1000). Finally, I'll place these two cards face down. That shall do it for now." (Péséraelle 5500, Yugi 1600)

Drawing, Yugi studied the card for a moment. After what seemed like an eternity, he calmly said "I'll start things by sacrificing my Obnoxious Celtic Guardian for Summoned Skull (2500/1200)."

The young elf vanished in a small flash of light, only to be replaced by a white boned creature with large horns, red muscle surrounding part of his bones, two large blue wings on his back, and clawed hands with three sharp claws for each.

"I'm yet to finish though, for I play the spell Dark Magic Curtain. After paying half of my life points, I'm allowed to special summon this, my Dark Magician (2500/2100)!"

A curtain like structure that had a skull in the center with a pair of arms, one to each side, sitting upon a round center materialised onto the field. Once Yugi's life point counter reduced by half it's current total, the curtain opened, allowing a purple flash to come flying from within it. The flash soon landed onto the field, revealing it to be a mage in purple robes with some armor, a strange spike like mage's hat, blue-grey like eyes, and a green scepter in his hands.

"Next, I play another spell! Go Dark Magic Attack, which destroys all of your spell and trap cards!"

Raising his staff, the mage sent out a blast of black energy straight for Péséraelle's face down cards. Both were struck by the blast, shattering each.

"Just perfect." Péséraelle mumbled.

"Summoned Skull, attack Mobius with Lightning Strike!" Yugi called out.

Letting out a gurgling sound, the bone creature raised it's arms up to aim them at the frost creature. Electricity to start crackling at the tip of it's claws before a large jolt of energy came flying out. Upon impact, the ice creature howled in pain before shattering into millions of pieces.

"I gotcha now Péséraelle! Dark Magician, direct attack her life points now!"

Raising his staff to point at Péséraelle, the mage prepared to strike before his eyes widened slightly, realisation seeming to be present in their depths.

Staring back at the mage on Yugi's side of the field, it's, no, his shiny polished armour glinting in the fading light of the hologram technology. His purple robes hugging his elegant physique that for some reason, did not seem to be strange to her. He looked at his target and his eyes narrowed slightly. The usually emotionless pools of lilac suddenly flashed into life, and his jaw dropped ever, ever such a little bit.

It was his eyes, and face that drew her attention. In her mind, a small vision of her recent dreams materialised. Images of her, but dressed in ancient Egyptian clothing, sobbing on a piece of stone. The stone had an intricate image cut into it that looked so life like. In it, a man in a mage's outfit with a scepter had been engraved. More images of her sobbing over the piece of stone continued to swarm her mind, and she swore she heard her look-a-like say "_Don't leave me, Mahado, please come back... I never meant any of those things I used to say to you when we were younger... I... I... I... I just did not want to seem like I was weak in front of you... But now... I will come after you, Mahado..._"

Simultaneously, the purple robed mage began panting as sweat dripped down his face. Yugi might have been mistaken, or course, but, this was the first time that he had ever seen the Dark Magician breathe. Actually inhale air. The very staff that struck fear into many opponents and monsters was quivering within his grip from holding it so tightly.

_"No..."_ Péséraelle almost heard as she saw the magician shake his head, his eyes seemingly begging,_ "No I won't...!"_

"Dark Magician?" Yugi called, his own face wrought with confusion. Still the mage stood immobile. _"There's gotta be something seriously wrong here. This had never happened before. There's gotta be a reason why he won't attack her..."_

Staring at Péséraelle, the mage slightly shook his head, still mumbling lowly _"No, no..."_

Growing annoyed at the immediate pause of the duel, Seto tapped the microphone on his trench coat collar, saying "Run a system error scan on station twelve."

Impatiently waiting a minute, Seto grumbled, muttering "Stupid operators." Pulling out his cell phone, he sent a quick text message, which was answered soon by the microphone bursting to life.

"_What is the matter now_!?" Seto's bossy Computer voice boomed. "_Honestly! A girl needs her beauty sleep ya know!"_

"Watch it, before I remove your anti-virus software!"

"_You wouldn't_!"

Seto sighed, mentally saying "_Stupid Computer, I should never have made it so lifelike._"

Regaining his composure, he remarked "Don't push it. Run a system error check on station twelve."

"_Just gimme one cotton-picking minute here_." the Computer arrogantly replied.

"What da heck's goin' on 'ere?" Joey called to Kaiba. "Eh Moneybags, what's up wit' your fantastic holographic simulation system?"

"_Running total system sweep error detection. Anti-virus software refreshed. Anti-spyware software refreshed. Running Norton bugfinder. Back-up systems, booting up. Back-up systems operational_..." the Computer rambled on while looking for any problems.

Kaiba shot a death glare at the Joey, snapping back with "For your information, mutt, there is nothing wrong with my technology."

Joey pointed at the purple trembling mage on the field, saying "Then how d'ya explain 'dat?!"

Interrupting, the Computer said "_Running system refresh. System re-booting. Checking for external breaches_..."

"What's taking so long?" Seto demanded, turning his cheek into his collar so as to speak into the mike more clearly. The others watched him with idle curiosity.

"_Beats the hard drive outta me!!! I can't find any errors! What exactly is going on down there_?" the Computer grumpily asked.

"One of the monsters in play won't carry out an order. What could cause this?" Seto asked while running a hand through his hair.

"_Hacks, connection malfunctions, neither of which are present. I've run every check three times already!!!_" the computer irritably responded. "_Which monster is it_?"

"Not that it means anything to you, but it's the Dark Magician. Why are you so nosey?"

Somewhat taken back, the computer smugly responded with "_Me, nosy? I'm insulted. A girl's gotta get some gossip from somewhere, ya know!The Dark Magician, eh? Ooh, the hot one_..."

Seto glared at the control screen and grabbed at his mike. "I am not discussing this with you! You're a computer!" he said, before breaking the line and switching the mike off.

"Well Moneybags?" Joey smugly asked.

Seto found it very difficult not to just vanquish him then and there, and the apologetic look on Serenity's face gave a similar impression.

On the field, Péséraelle looked deeply into the eyes of the mage. They were stormy, yet somehow clearer than before. She saw his eyebrows curve downwards in a bewildered look. He shuddered, his lips forming a word that only she could hear.

_"Peseshet..." _the mage mumbled.

Turning his head away, he closed his eyes. Upon doing this, the mage vanished from the field, leaving both duelists and all the spectators in awe.

"Monsters can't do that!" Mokuba exclaimed in total shock.

"What?" Yugi said in a gasp. Pulling the card off of his Duel Disk, he placed it once more back onto the panel, only the mage failed to appear.

Sending Atem a mental message, Yugi asked "_Atem, I don't get it! There's something very wrong going on here. Can you find out while I round this duel up?_"

"_I'll have to go into the monster realm to find out for sure._ _Be back in a flash._" Atem answered before vanishing.

Grumbling, Yugi took his two remaining cards from his hand, saying "I place these face down to end my turn." (Péséraelle 5400, Yugi 800)

Nodding, Péséraelle drew a new card, saying "I don't know what happened, but apparently, it has helped me. I start by playing the spell Fissure, which destroys the weakest monster on the field. Since there is only one monster on the field, that means your Summoned Skull is gone!"

Pointing at a face down, Yugi called out "Not quite Péséraelle, because I was prepared for this! I activate the spell Mirage Spell! With this, the effect of your spell card is negated, and I gain 2000 life points."

"Not bad Yugi. You may have saved your monster, but not for long. I activate the spell Card of Sanctity, meaning we each get to draw till we hold six cards in our hands." Péséraelle calmly explained.

Picking up a few cards for herself, she examined them and smirked. Calmly, she said "I think it's high time I finish this little duel. I play the ritual spell Contract with the Dark Master. I must send monsters totaling eight stars to my Graveyard, so I send Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Thanks to this, I can special summon this, my strongest monster, Dark Master – Zorc (2700/1500)!"

Without warning, a green mist began covering the field. Slowly from the mist, a creature with large red wings, purple spikes on each shoulder, a bronzed chest, some type of black pants, green spiky hair, and a strange sword in his right hand emerged.

"Thanks to Zorc's special ability, I can roll a die. If that die lands on anything other than six, you lost your last defense. I think it's time we found out just how lucky you are!"

A black die appeared on the field and began spinning rapidly. Suddenly, it launched into the air, spinning just as hard as it had been on the field. It soon came tumbling down, striking the ground and rolling. After a moment of rolling around, the result of the die came up as a two.

Smugly smiling, Péséraelle said "Looks like you lose a monster after all. Zorc, crush his Summoned Skull."

Pointing it's sword at the bone creature, the green haired creature released a cloud of dark fog at the bone creature. The cloud instantly surrounded the bone creature, which shrieked out, trying to find a way to escape the cloud. Escape was never found though, for the fog began to glow dark purple, causing the shrieking to end. The fog soon dissipated, revealing an empty slot on the field.

"Zorc, direct attack Yugi's life points!"

Letting out a loud grunt, the green haired creature pointed it's sword at Yugi. Like before, a cloud of darkness came from the sword, but this time it moved at a faster rate. The cloud quickly crossed the field, slamming into Yugi, making him cry out in pain. Once the cloud finally vanished, Yugi fell to one knee, panting heavily.

"I shall end my turn…"

"Not quite yet you won't." Yugi called out, interrupting Péséraelle. "I play a trap, my Mirage Ruler. When all of the monsters on my field are destroyed, I can use this trap to special summon the monsters destroyed and restore my life points."

Static electricity suddenly began forming on the field. Slowly, the bone creature began to rematerialise, letting out a small growl once fully restored.

Slightly smirking, Péséraelle said "Not bad Yugi. Maybe there is more than meets the eye with you. For now though, I end my turn." (Péséraelle 5400, Yugi 2800)

Drawing a card, Yugi smiled, saying "Thanks, but this duel isn't over yet. I play the spell Ties of the Brethern, for which I must pay 1000 life points. Since I just gave up the 1000, I can now special summon two level four monsters from my deck, and my picks are Alpha the Magnet Warrior (1400/1700) and Beta the Magnet Warrior (1700/1600)."

Materializing onto the field was a grey magnet creature with a shield with a magnet on it, and a sword in his other hand. Beside of the grey magnet creature, a yellow magnet creature with a magnet head, hands, and feet appeared.

"Next, I play the spell Graceful Charity, allowing me to draw three new cards, but once I do, I have to send two from my hand to the Graveyard."

Picking up three new cards, Yugi examined them before saying "I send these two to my Graveyard. Now then, I play the spell Monster Reborn, bringing back my Dark Magician Girl (2000/1700)!"

A young beautiful girl with mid-back length blonde hair and green eyes, wearing a skimpy blue and pink dress with an odd magician's hat and blue boots appeared onto the field. She let out a small giggle and twirled around and struck a pose.

Upon seeing this young magistrix, Péséraelle seemed to become fixated on her. A small flash of images appeared in her mind of a young girl with brown hair, blue-green eyes that wore a white skimpy dress. For some reason, the image of girl was associated with the young man that she had constantly been seeing as well.

In a low whisper, Péséraelle said "Mana…"

Staring at Péséraelle, the magistrix frowned. Turning to look over her shoulder, she whispered to Yugi "Why is Peseshet here?"

"Who?" Yugi asked, unsure of what the magistrix meant.

Frowning once more, she sighed and turned back to the battle, softly saying "I guess I could be wrong, but I don't think so."

"Thanks to Dark Magician Girl's special ability, she gains 300 attack points since Dark Magician is in my Graveyard (2000 + 300 2300/1700). Continuing on, I play Gamma the Magnet Warrior (1500/1800)!" Yugi called out upon slapping the card to his Duel Disk.

Showing up onto the field, a pink magnet creature with a magnet strapped to it's portly stomach and large pink wings appeared.

"Now I merge my three Magnet Warriors together, creating Valkyrion the Magna Warrior (3500/3850)!"

One by one, the three magnet creatures began to break apart. Slowly, piece by piece, the three began to come back together, but this time forming a large silver magnet creature with a yellow masked face, large pink wings on it's back, and a powerful sword.

"Time to end this duel! Valkyrion, attack Zorc with Magnet Force Slash!"

Letting out a low mechanical groan, the magnet creature leapt forward at breakneck speed. Within a flash, the magnet creature slashed completely through the green haired creature, which proceeded to explode into millions of pieces.

"Summoned Skull, direct attack with Lightning Strike!"

Letting out a loud growl, the bone creature raised it's arms, forming a large sphere of lightning above it's head. The sphere released several bolts of electricity at Péséraelle, striking her hard and making her cry out in pain.

"Let's finish this Dark Magician Girl. Direct attack with Burning Magic Attack!"

Giving a small nod, the young magistrix leapt into the air, twirling her scepter in front of herself. Staring at the woman before her, the magistrix sadly smiled and pointed her staff.

"_Mahado, I'm sorry. Forgive me for this, but I must obey._" the female mage silently said to herself before released a sphere of black magic.

The sphere struck Péséraelle hard, knocking her to her knees. Smoke poured off of her body while her life points quickly dwindled down to zero. Upon hitting zero, the holograms on the field vanished, and each Duel Disk powered down.

Walking over to Péséraelle with a warm smile, Yugi extended his hand, saying "Good duel."

Smiling back, Péséraelle replied "Oui, it was."

"Where did you learn to duel like that?"

Péséraelle closed her eyes and shook her head brieflty. "Je ne sais pas."

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"Pharaoh..." the Dark Magician pleaded, kneeling on the floor before Atem, who looked almost as bewildered, he had never quite gotten used to people kneeling at his feet.

"Dark Magician, what happened?" he asked, softly yet authoratively. The spellcaster's breathing was erratic again, his chest heaving underneath his armour.

"I failed you my Pharaoh... I broke my oath... I swore I would fight for you and I betrayed you..."

"Dark Magician, Yugi still won the duel. I just do not understand..."

"Peseshet..." the magician choked, "It was Peseshet..." His mouth opened as he tried to speak and he shook his head, looking up with pleading eyes, "I... I... could not attack her my Pharaoh, I could never attack her... Never... I had to choose... I feel so ashamed... But..."

Atem knelt down by the spellcaster's side, and he looked away. "Her name is Péséraelle." he explained. He gasped as memories of Seto speaking to her in Egyptian flooded back, and were followed by more, more ancient ones. A conversation with High Priestess Isis replayed in his mind, she explained to him how it was high time that he ask her...

_"Of course!!! How could I not have seen?"_he asked himself. Peseshet, Péséraelle, Peseshet, Péséraelle...

"But you love her." he said quietly, finishing the magician's sentance.

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**Atem: Ooooooooooooooh!!!!!!!! DM has a girlfriend... DM has a girlfriend...**

**WildEm: (glares) I didn't hire you to be annoying.**

**Atem: (cowers) Sorry.**

**WildEm: Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease review!!! Before by bishies drive me insane!!!!!!!!!! **


	10. Yanakh Peseshet sima sesin sa sinu tu

**A CEO Scorned.**

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**WildEm: Title being Ancient Egyptian for 'You are Peseshet reincarnated' again, I watch far too much of TMR.**

**Atem: You got that right.**

**Seto: Oh shut up!**

**WildEm: That's enough!!! Both of you!!! Now, courtesy of Isis the Sphinx, I have someone to come and stop you bickering and driving me more insane than I already am. **

**Atem: Please tell me it isn't Seth!!!**

**WildEm: Actually, for once, no, it is... Ta-duh-dah: Yugi!!!**

**Yugi: (enters) Hi guys.**

**WildEm: Thanks Isis. Great idea. Okay Yugi, you think you can get these guys to stop going at each others' throats while I write the chapter?**

**Yugi: Sure thing.**

**WildEm: You are my lifesaver. Oh, and there will be more SxS action in the next chapter, I know they're sort of on hold at the moment, but I promise, spotlight goes back to them in a bit. I'm not gonna be able to post any more chapters for a little while, I'm going away for a week, I'm taking my laptop but because my wireless connection is on a BT HomeHub I won't be able to get the net. I'll still be writing though, and It'd be great if my inbox had loads of reviews when I get back!!! I'll put chapter 10 up hopefully on Friday/Saturday. I'm going away for a national competition, so wish me luck guys!!! See you Friday!!!**

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**Yanakh Peseshet sima sesin sa sinu tu.**

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"So..." Yugi began, handing Péséraelle a hot chocolate, "What were you saying about these dreams?"

Once again, Seto found himself back in Yugi's living room, with the rest of Yugi's friends, leaning against the wall next to the window. The rain was pouring down outside, and it was absolutely tipping it down. He was surprised that the killer raindrops didn't break through the window. He could feel the cold from outside coming in from the window, but on the other hand, the radiator beaneath the window was on full whack and the sensation of both hot and cold made him shiver. He wanted nothing more than to sink to the floor by the radiator and curl up and sleep...

But he would die before thinking about it here.

Péséraelle was wrapped in a blanket at the centre of the three-seater sofa, with Yugi on her right, and Elizaveta on her left. Since Pegasus' death, Seto and Mokuba had invited her to come and live with them, as she would be lonely in Pegasus' mansion, although he hadn't gotten away with it for the first few weeks without regular visits from Kimo and Croquet. After the first few weeks, he had told them, quite simply, that if he saw them near his property again, he would let his guards shoot them.

Surprisingly, they hadn't called around since.

Atem, Joey and Serenity were sitting in armchairs opposite Seto, Mokuba was perching on a footrest near Serenity and Téa, Tristan and Duke were sitting on beanbags on the floor. Péséraelle took a deep breath. He was beginning to get the impression that this woman was a real know-it-all. Clever, oh yes, very, and not so afraid of subtlely telling other people so, either.

"Merci, and, I, I don't really know, it's like I keep having weird moments where I'm somebody else, only for a second or two when I'm awake, but for longer when I sleep, and it's really starting to freak me out, I mean, I thought it was just the PVS playing tricks on me, but I really don't know. I'm having a few blank spots as well, where I'm conscious, but when I look back, I just can't remember what I was doing, these are usually around the times I go all other-person-y, so my guess would be that I'm actually in this other-person-y thing for longer than I'm consciously aware of, so that might indicate that my brain is..."

Yusi stared wide-eyed. "Woah!!! Slow down a minute, can you remember, what the content of these 'other-person-y' moments is?"

Péséraelle gripped her mug gently and raised in to her lips and taking a sip again before speaking, shaking her head from side to side as if she really didn't want to tell them this. "I can see this, this man..."

Atem perked up at this, uncrossing his legs, he leant forward with an inquisitive look on his face. Seto looked disinterested, but, despite the appearance, he was listening.

She narrowed her eyes a tiny bit, trying ot recall the image. "He smiles at me, and tells me that he's sorry and that he loves me, and he reaches out to me, but can't reach. Everytime I dream it though it's like he seems to get closer though. He tells me his name but I forget it as soon as I wake up."

"What does he look like?"

Everyone in the room turned their heads to look at Atem, as serious as ever, leaning forward even more and putting his elbow over his knee, letting his hand casually grasp his chin. She looked to the side for a moment, before back at Atem.

"About 5ft11, I think, um... Chestnut hair, I think, he wears this sort of hat..." she motioned over her head with her left hand, "Tanned skin, and, the most gorgeous lilac-coloured eyes... Am I ranting?"

"Are ya sure 'e's not jus' ya dream man or somethin' like 'dat?"

Péséraelle frowned and Serenity smacked Joey over the head. "Joey!"

"Ouch, what? Geez Ren 'dat hurt!"

_"Ren..."_Seto mused. It suited her. It had a clear, strong ring to it but at the same time it was beautiful, and gentle on the ears. Seto almost began to smile at her, but stopped himself quickly. He still wasn't entirely sure if he had Joey's blessing yet, infact, he was sure that he didn't have Joey's blessing, and the last thing anybody wanted at the moment was for the mutt to go off on one of his rants. Although being so near her and not being able to talk to her touch her, or even soften his gaze for her was driving him insane. That fluffy feeling was back...

"Would you think before you opened your mouth?" she mock-scolded.

...Oh gods... It was back with a vengence. He began to gaze at her when he thought he could, and once, their eyes locked for a split second, and during that split second, both of them felt happier than they had ever felt before. Seto's heart thumped in his chest so loudly that he was worried the others might hear it, and he had to hold his breath so as to starve himself of the oxygen that allow him to show any more of his feelings.

"No, you aren't." Atem smiled, as Yugi's eyes wavered to the clock, which read nine thirty.

"Hey, do you guys wanna stay for dinner?" Yugi pipped up.

"Eh, sorry Yug, Me and Ren 'ave gotta go, it's gettin' kinda late." said Joey, proceeding to give a massive yawn.

"Yeah..." said Téa slowly, "I guess we oughta go."

"Yeah, it was great meeting you, Péséraelle."

She nodded and Yugi grinned. "Safe journey back okay guys?"

Joey waved his hand. "Ah shuddup Yug."

Seto took his weight off the wall. "Let's go, Mokuba."

"Ahhhhhh Commmmming..." he yawned, before getting off the footrest and walking to his brother's side.

"Kaiba, may I talk with you out the front for a minute?"

"No."

"A minute, literally."

Seto grunted. "Whatever."

Atem heaved himself up from his chair and followed the CEO into the shop part of the building, where he closed the door behind them and folded his arms.

"So you recognise her?" he asked.

"Why should I?"

"She obviously knows us." Atem said, "She recognised us when we went to see her remember? Atem? Seth? Remember?"

"Yes."

"So now do you recognise her, Seth?"

Seto flinched at the name. "Will you make up your mind what you're going to call me Atem because I'm sick of all this alternate life hypocrisy."

"She was the physician, in the Infirmary, Seth. And Mahado's childhood rival and later love. Can you remember teasing him about it, as he teased you about Kisara?"

"Don't call me Seth!!!"

"She was the attending physician when I went down with the fever that time. Can't you remember her, Seth?"

"I said _don't _call me Seth!!!!" he yelled, clasping his temples with a sudden dizziness that had come over him. It felt like he was descending into a state of complete calmness and tranquility. And he didn't like it one bit. A picture of an Ancient Egyptian Péséraelle was forming in his mind, as well as one of Mahado.

"You do, don't you, cousin?"

"I'm not your cousin!!!"

"Seth listen..."

"_Stop it_!!!"

Seto hmmed very softly as he went into a phased-out sort of trance, letting his head fall forward onto his chest. The eyes that Atem saw looking up from under his chocolate-brown fringe were different, less cold, and they seemed deeper, more mysterious, yet more genuine. They blinked and his breathing became slower.

"That is why Mahado would not attack her." he said, in a voice that was calmer than usual, "The power of his emotions was stronger than the power he used to lock himself in that tablet."

Atem smiled. "I knew you would remember."

"Let us not be the pot calling the kettle black, my cousin. You yourself were unaware of this until a few hours ago."

Atem gasped. "How did you..."

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again Atem saw a flicker of blue light. "Your mind is easier to read than an unrolled papyrus." he chuckled, "Elizaveta and my hikari are planning to set Destiny back on course by reviving Mahado - I believe that modern technologia makes up for the absence of a spirit. This was meant to happen. Peseshet woke up before Kaiba embarked on this assignment." his eyes narrowed, and he began to raise his hands to his head again, "I think you know very well where this shall go."

He began to massage his temples again, and screwed his eyes tight. Atem felt a pang of sadness as the aspect of Seto that was his cousin faded... The cousin that had taught him almost everything he needed to know, taunted him into managing impossible feats, challenged him and had been a confident with whom he had discussed his innermost demons and problems, ranging from Court problems to courting problems.

Seto groaned as the ringing in his ears gradually stopped, his eyes returning to their normal state. Atem smiled again.

"Thank you. I think Mokuba's waiting. Safe journey and a good night, Kaiba."

A little voice in the back of his head whispering, _"...my cousin..."_

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"Are you sure you wanna do this today? You look knackered."

"That's one word for it." Seto said as he laid the Millennium Ring and the Millennium Rod down on the table. He hadn't touched the thing since Yugi had given it to him, and there were no signs of anything creepy... Yet...

Being a total insomniac didn't help. He had barely slept at all last night, and all hope that Elizaveta might not have noticed this had gone down the drain a long time ago.

"Okay, do we have a spell?"

"I'm just trying to find it. Go over to Yugi's, get Péséraelle, and ask Yugi for his Dark Magician card."

"And what if he wants to come too?"

"Tell him to sod off!!!"

Elizaveta smirked and orbed out, leaving Seto rummaging through his stuff for the spell he had used with his yami in Egypt... Honestly, where the Hell did he put that thing?

Seto passed a few painfully slow minutes by tweaking the wording on the spell a little, before Elizaveta orbed back in with Péséraelle, who jumped and shrieked, not being used to orbing.

"Mon dieu..." she exclaimed.

"Hi there!" She shrieked again and fell over backwards as Nina padded up to her and offered her a paw to shake, "I'm Nina, pleased to meet you!"

"Urgh, ça c'est trop bizarre!" she said, before extending her arm tentatively, "I'm Péséraelle."

"I've heard so much about you dear. Alright, come with me and we'll get ourselves a nice cup of tea, Master Seto and Mistress Elizaveta have a little something to take care of. Come with me." Nina waited for the bewildered woman to heave herself to her feet before leading her out of the room, just as Seto pulled the scrap piece of paper with the spell on it out of the Book of the Dead.

"You got it?" Elizaveta asked, surprisingly happy for nine o' clock in the morning.

"Yep. Get your arse over here...

_**We call upon the Magics great,**_

_**The Seven Bright Shiners, **_

_**The Nineth and Eighth,**_

_**To beckon one, **_

_**Return to the Sun,**_

_**And undo, **_

_**What can't be undone,**_

_**To right a wrong of flawèd Fate,**_

_**Retrieve one from the furthest Gate,**_

_**And from his prison, **_

_**His soul seperate."**_

The Dark Magician card on the Ring began to glow and vibrate, shaking as if it were a petrified creature that was about to be stamped on. The Ring began to shine too, making Elizaveta crumple the piece of paper with the spell on in her palms. Suddenly, purple light exploded from the image on the card, forcing both teenagers to cover their eyes to prevent themselves from being blinded.

As the light faded, Seto's jaw dropped as an image of the Dark Magician appeared - but there was no simulator in his living room!!! The Dark Magician's face was one of confusion. The light exploded again, engulfing the spellcaster completely. The smell of Magic in the air suddenly got stronger - Seto briefly wondered if the maids would be able to get it out of the furniture of not, but just as quickly dismissed the thought, classing it as slightly badly timed. The light seemed to be winding and snaking itself around the Dark Magician's body like a million tiny golden threads, and his eyes shot open as if someone had just stabbed him in the gut and he seemed to be in a state of something that looked very like pain. Elizaveta covered her mouth and Seto narrowed his eyes - Duel Monsters couldn't feel pain - but this one was different.

This one had always been different. There was a reason that Yugi and Atem were so fond of him. Him. Not it.

Seto swore out loud as a circular beam of light erupted from the Dark Magician and knocked them off their feet, shattering all the windows into thousends of tiny shards which fell like hailstones onto the furniture beneath them. Seto hit the ground with a painful thud, as did Elizaveta. He groaned and sat up, just in time to see Nina slide back aruond the door and take cover behind an armchair. The light was beginning to fade, but the Dark Magician had apparently stood for a second, before falling to the floor and was lying on his side having collapsed almost dead, still shrouded in a layer of power. That too, gradually faded, but the Dark Magician had changed.

He was wearing garments not unsimilar to what Seto's own past incarnation wore, and he could have been no older than twenty-five, a strand of chesnut hair was visible inside his bizarre headdress. Seto's look of confusion turned to one of horror, as he saw that two deep slashes plagued his body - one running from the front of his right shoulder to his stomach, and one running from the left side of his chest to under his ribs on that side. And they were deep. Elizaveta gasped as crimson red blood leaked from the wounds and pooled on the carpet underneath him.

His eyes were screwed shut in agony, his breath stinted and his body shuddering. He crossed his arms across his torso, and tried to bring his knees up in an attempt to stop the pouring blood, but his muscles seized and jaw dropped, stifling a cry as incredible pain seared through him.

"What are you waiting for? Heal him!!!" Nina bellowed, making both teenagers jump and snap back into reality. They pushed their way through arm chairs and dropped to their knees beside him.

"Come on... Come on!!!" Elizaveta said under her breath as the gash she had slowly sealed up under the golden healing glow from her hands, the tear in his tunic repairing itself too. Seto finished his too, and rolled the former Dark Magician onto his back, sighing in relief that the blood was no longer there either. Slowly, lilac eyes opened, seemingly in awe that the excruciating pain was no longer there. He sat up very suddenly, and he looked at the palms of his hands in disbelief, his jaw dropping as he turned them over. He looked up, left, and then right.

"Seth? _Where... Where am I?_"

Seto suddenly felt a weird sense of dèja vu, and before he had time to think, his mouth opened. _"Iiwy em hotep, Mahado."_

'Mahado' looked at Seto, taking in his modern attire and paler skin.

_"Yanakh Seth sima sesin sa sinu whe."_

Mahado's eyes widened like saucers. _"Yasut?"_

_"Tieu."_

"What happened? I... I..."

"We changed Fate." Seto explained, "We expelled the Bakura, and that way you were able to be brought back."

Mahado's eyes searched Seto's for answers. "You are Seth's reincarnation?"

Seto sighed. "I am Seth, in every dimension except time. My name is Seto Kaiba."

"Then you are also an Abhorsen?" he asked, "How far into the future are we?"

"Yes, to the first. As for the second: Five thousend years, give or take a century."

"What???!!!" Mahado exclaimed. Seto and Elizaveta jumped as one of the destroyed tables suddenly burst into bright purple flames. The magician, and apparently, from the look of the flames, Charter Mage, looked around, muttered an apology, and with a wave of a hand, the flames died as quickly as they were born.

Elizaveta looked at him with narrowed eyes - the eyeliner that boldened and framed his lilac eyes and the shape of his cheeks, the bronzed skin and the toned body - he was very handsome.

"Why did you do it Mahado?"

Everybody looked around to see a very ornately dressed High Priest standing in the room, translucent, as all ghosts were. His attire was the same as it had been 5000 years ago, his expression all too familiar.

"How did you get here?" Seto demanded, but Seth ignored him.

"It was the only way to seal Bakura's Ka." he said simply, and Seth raised one eyebrow, a tiny fraction.

"I know the vision you had that night, Mahado." he said to his friend, "Egypt was not in that great a threat from Bakura, he was just pushing it too far with Atem's father. It could have waited until the morning, at least. So why did you drag yourself out to a battle in the middle of the night, when you were not on your best form?"

"It could not wait..."

"You knew Bakura and Zork's strategy before any of us did." Seth said, taking a few steps towards closer to the three, "You knew that the Court's weakness was not in any physical, mental or magical breach. It was in an emotional one. You knew Bakura planned to get to you in the same way that he got to me, by leading Zork to Akunadin. You knew you could not let it happen."

Mahado's eyes fell to the floor for a second, before they slipped shut, in something that ressembled shame.

"You saw her die didn't you, in Bakura's bid to weaken you." Seth sighed, "I have felt the same."

A lone tear ran down Mahado's right cheek, and Seth's expression became softer, his eyes large and forgiving.

"You loved her." he said, "You still do."

"She died not long after I." Mahado said, "I still could not prevent..."

"I know. It bit us both on the backsides, huh?"

"Wait, back up, I thought we brought everyone back to Life..." said Seto warily.

"Yes we did, but apparently the effect wore off." said Seth somewhat sadly his untidier bangs falling over his eyes. Seto didn't push the subject, it was obviously a tender one.

Normally, Mahado would have snorted, but he bit his lip tenderly. "I had to choose..." he said, referring to the duel in which he had fought his master with every fibre of his being so as not to hurt her.

"You did the right thing." said Elizaveta.

"Time comes around, Mahado." Seth reminded, a hint of hope in his usually serious voice.

Mahado was quiet for a few seconds, before speaking again. "I want to see her."

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**WildEm: Review people!**

**Ancient Egyptian dialogue:**

**Seto: I am Seth reincarnated.**

**Mahado: Truly?**

**Seto: Yes.**


	11. I wunhuru sab rêkhut

**A CEO Scorned.**

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**WildEm: Title being Ancient Egyptian for 'A true love'... I'm getting good at this. Yippee!!! If you're wondering where my bishies are, don't worry, they are okay... ish... Yugi took care of 'em. I managed to get hurt the first day at my competition, bruised and battered, but otherwise okay, could have been worse, but I was alright for the third day. So my typing's a bit slow 'cause I bruised the ball of my **

**hand and I can't raise my arm very far up without pain, but I'll try and get this up quickly. **

**There's SxS here and more, I have responded!**

**Check out Arnold, and **Seto's conversation with the Computer**, I thought that was so funny. Oh, and...**

**Oi Churchill!!! Can you save me money on me' car insurance???**

**Churchill: (bops head) Oh, yes!**

**WildEm: That's only funny if you're British...**

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**I-wunhuru sab-rêkhut**

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"Péséraelle, you can come in now!"

"What was all that noise...?" Péséraelle asked, closing the door behind her, before freezing where she stood.

Seth gave an unimpressed glance between the two. "I can see that this might get a little personal..." he grabbed Seto and Elizaveta by the collar and ushered them out of the door. "Five minutes."

They closed the door behind them, where Seto and Seth stood with their arms folded and wearing identical expressions while Elizaveta crouched down and put her ear to the keyhole.

Meanwhile, inside, Mahado's chest heaved and his breath became audible. Feelings and emotions that had been left to simmer a long time ago were beginning to boil over the side of the pan. His eyebrows flattened and his lip trembled, his eyes glassed over with tears that hadn't fallen yet.

"Peseshet..." he whispered.

Péséraelle gasped, her hands flying over her mouth, her eyes wide like saucers. "You... You... You're... You're the man, from my dream..."

"Dream...?" he asked, his voice only just perceptable, shaking his head slowly, his lilac eyes never breaking contact with her olive green ones. A tear ran down his cheek, "You... You don't..." he took a few slow, shaky steps towards her, "...remember me...?"

"What?"

"Peseshet..."

"Why do you keep calling me that?!"

_"Oh please no..."_ he whispered, looking up, as if he was not addressing her, but some higher power that had caused the incident, as yet another tear fell and stung his cheek. "Please remember me Peseshet please..."

"Remember you??? I've never met you before in my life!!!"

This gilted conversation continued for a while. Every claim she made to not ever having known him seemed to hit him full on physically, like he had been slammed by a brick wall.

"Who, who are you?" she asked quietly, slowly lowering her hands from over her mouth. He said nothing, closed his eyes and stepped right up to her. She stood rigid and speechless as he raised his hands behind her head and gently took out her hairclip, letting her hair fall around the side of her face, before very, very gently placing his hands on her waist and leaning down to capture her lips with his. Both of them felt like they had just swallowed a flame torch. She felt a rush of emotions come rushing in, making her head swim in an almost drunken sensation. She slid an arm up around his neck as her knees began to give way - she had no idea where this incredible feeling passion was coming from, but all she seemed to know was that she needed him, in the same way that he needed her. Everything about him was familiar, the way he touched and kissed her, the shape of his body, the way he seemed to know exactly where she liked to be touched. As she felt his arms tighten around her waist and his hands travel up and down her back, she rubbed his chest affectionately, gradually moving up to where his jaw met his neck. This he seemed to enjoy, and she briefly wondered how she had known that he was sensitive there. Lack of oxygen forced them to pull apart, although heavy breathing was impossible. Their mouths were just millimetres away. She blinked a few times, before brushing a strand of hair out of his face.

"..._Mahado_..." she whispered against his lips, taking a moment to close her eyes and bury her head in his neck. Feeling her whisper his name against his lips made the mage hold her tighter than before and lean his head against hers as his esteem soared and she broke out into racking sobs.

"I thought I'd lost you..."

"I too, until the other day..."

"You're the Dark Magician... You... You defied the Pharaoh so as not to harm me..." she said quietly. He stroked her hair gently - everything about him was warm and loving.

"Nothing could make me harm you... Nothing..."

She removed her head from his neck and looked up at him. "How long do you have? Don't you have to go back...?"

Tears of joy flowed down Mahado's face as he almost burst out into blissful laughter. "No!" he said, "I am staying!"

"Stay with me..." she sobbed, wiping her tears away with her sleeve.

He nuzzled his cheek against hers. "I would never leave you..." he whispered, before leaning down and kissing her neck slowly. He pulled back slightly for a moment, before proceeding to plant small kisses up her neck to just below her earlobe, where he felt her flinch, and began to kiss her again. This time, he began to suck slowly, letting his tongue dance over her skin. She gasped, flung her arms around his neck, and tried not to writhe as he did so. He pulled away to catch his breath, but only caught a fraction of a second, because she pulled him back down and kissed him fiercely. He eased his tongue into her mouth and she moaned into him as he ran his tongue sensually up and down hers...

Meanwhile, outside, Nina, Elizaveta, Seto and Seth had a pretty good idea about what was going on.

"Hey guys..." whispered Elizaveta, standing up from her crouched position by the keyhole, "D'you think we should perhaps give them ten minutes?"

"It _is _true what they say, leaving two people alone in a room together does provoke romantic emotions!"

"Oh leave them Nina, they have a lot to catch up on."

"Not just talking, by the sounds of it!" Nina purred disapprovingly.

"Just 'cause you don't get any."

"I resent that... Hey, where do you think you're going???!!!" Nina and Elizaveta simultaneously blinked as Seto pulled Seth into the kitchen and shut the door.

"What... Whe... How... What the _fuck_ are you doing here???!!!"

Seth seemed oblivious to the lack of coordination and foul language of his reincarnation's sentance, his blue eyes trained on Seto's in a mysterious way that made Seto inwardly feel like a small child in the presence of royalty. Seth's aura was also powerful, and he radiated more power from his body than heat. "Your ability to string together a comprehendable sentance in times of surprise is unimpressive, hikari."

Seto seethed. "Answer the question."

"I wished to talk to Mahado, do you have a problem with that?"

"Yes actually!!! How the Hell can you get out of the Rod when you want to?"

Seth sighed. "I am an Abhorsen. I can do pretty much whatever I please."

"So why didn't you show yourself before when Marik had the Rod???!!!"

"To reveal myself to Dark Marik at that time would have been foolish. And besides, it did not matter to me or to you, and you needed the time."

Seto mentally bit his lip before exploding again. "For _what_??? Exactly???!!!"

"To come to your numb little senses."

"Look..."

"No, you look! Why is it the Egyptian part that you are so afraid of? You can embrace all of your other powers, including Free Magic, and be fine, so what is it about the Millennium Items and myself that seems to make you squirm?"

"What the Hell are you on about now???!!!"

"Do you want to know what I think?"

"No."

"Well you are going to hear it anyway." he said dangerously, sharpening his gaze, "You dislike Atem's hikari's little friends. I cannot say I adhere to them either, to be honest. Too naive. Amongst other things. You know why you dislike them, I do not have to tell you why. But by keeping the Millennium Items at bay, you are effectively keeping them at bay. That was alright at first, you did not know about your powers, so fair enough, and it still would be fair enough, if Destiny did not have a nauseating sense of humour. But, the good thing is, that they do not possess Millennium Items, only Atem and his hikari do. Isis and her hikari possess the Tauk, Shaada and Shaadi, I think his name is, the Key, Mahado the Ring and yourself and I the Rod. Leave the Scales and the Eye out of it, they are Shaada's problem."

"Yugi, Ishizu, Shaadi and Mahado. Yugi is a naive child! Ishizu is insane! Shaadi is God only knows what and Mahado..."

"Is my friend, and the most talented magician I have ever met. His head is screwed on properly! Why do you think we get along? Yugi is naive, and so is Atem, to a small extent. But Atem is my cousin and is not half as foolish as he lets on. Ishizu, like yourself, has had an unpleasant childhood, and also like yourself, has to look out for her brother, hikari. She takes comfort in knowing that she is right. Isis is not half so collected. Yes, Isis is insane, and we tease her about it, and we move on. Neither of them are stupid, and unlike some of Yugi's friends, are mature and intelligent enough to think before they open their mouths. Ishizu and yourself are more similar than you know."

"Oh, and now you're gonna tell me that Shaadi's 'not half as bad as I think' as well??"

Seth shook his head. "No. No, Shaada is worse. Shaada is the one who does not know how old he is. Again, we pat him on the shoulder, and send him in the right direction."

"But..."

"But now your powers are active it is even better! Because if anybody annoys you, you can just turn them into a cockroach."

Seto had to give a tiny nod in agreement. Seth looked down and twiddled the Rod between his fingers lightly, before looking a little sad.

"What?"

Seth held out the palm of his hand to the side, and blue orbs and greeny-lights swirled above his skin. They took some kind of shape, which glowed almost fiercely and he gathered it in his hand. "If you do nothing else for me..." he said seriously, although a hint of emotion made his voice quiver fractionally, "Please, just give this to Serenity." he held the glowing object in his hand.

On closer inspection, Seto could see that it was a pendant, with a beautiful silver Blue-Eyes White Dragon, with diamonds around it's wings and sapphires in it's eyes. It was about the size of a pill-packet and attached to two slight yet long silver chains which ended in clasps. Sensing deeper, he felt a powerful magical aura around it, not dissimilar from what he could sense when a Millennium Item was near, but this was not so, looming, as an Item, and did not seem so dark. He extended his hand and took it from Seth who eyed it almost endearingly, before dropping it carefully into his palm, where the glow faded. "What is it?" he asked.

Seth's stare penetrated his soul again. "I think you know."

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After the episode with Seth, Seto had left Mahado and Péséraelle... Peseshet... Whoever the Hell she was, with Elizaveta and Nina at the mansion and gone to work. He was happy to leave them with Elizaveta, she was alright, he dared to say, but the thought of the British flag flying from the upstairs windows crossed his mind when he thought of Nina being left. There were still some things he had to clean up though. As in Seth. He really did not want a yami, he liked to keep his mind to himself, thank you very much. He did not mind using the Rod's powers, as such, but there was too much about him, his past, his present, that he wanted to carry with him, and only him, to the grave and beyond. And Seth had also been correct about him not wanting to be any closer to Yugi's groupies. They had always made him feel uneasy, like there was something totally wrong with him, despite that, even if maybe there was, it was not his fault.

He didn't even want to think about it. Having Mahado around was hard enough, let alone Seth as well. Seto was glad that, given that Mahado was 5ft11 and he was 6ft4, his clothes were too long for him - although he was a tall 5ft11, Elizaveta had said he was more like six foot - and Elizaveta and Péséraelle had decided that taking him into town to go shopping was perhaps not the best idea. Despite Mahado being a little familiar with a few twenty-first century contraptions, due to the various battlefields he had been summoned to; skyscrapers, roads, cars and modern attire, for example, he was still not familiar with household appliances, or, household anything, to be totally honest. He was not too phased by anything, or if he was he did well concealing it. However, when Elizaveta had called Yugi to tell him the news, he had warned her, from a previous experience, 'not to introduce him to the dishwasher for at least a couple of months'. To this, she had nodded like Churchill the insurance head-bopping dog in agreement.

Elizaveta had then also called a friend, who, thank God, Seto thought, had no connection to Yugi's gang whatsoever, and asked him to temporarily donate some clothes. They were sorting that out now as Seto thought. Striding into his office, slamming the door behind him with a vengence and dropping himself into his comfortable spinny office chair, he sighed contentedly at hearing the familiar and comforting whir and LCD glow of his computer and settled down to type. But surely this glorious peace and quiet could not last for long...

"_Well there you are!!! I've been worried sick about you!!!_"

Seto's face deteriorated into a murderous one. He _had _to do something about that computer. "I was gone for a day!!!"

"_Precisely!!! I thought you'd died or something!!!_"

"Thanks for your vote of confidence."

"_Arnold and I were wondering what was going on!_"

Seto's hand froze on the keyboard. "Who the Hell is Arnold?"

"_Our back-up miniframe._"

"You called our back-up miniframe Arnold?"

"_You just have to burst my bubble, don't you?_"

"It seems to be becoming a regular arrangement. So go on. You're dying to tell me. What happened when I was gone?"

"_Well, the same old really, Siegfried called ranting about something, Helen couldn't understand what he was saying though, and it was Johan's day off._" **(A/N: 'Johan Hirsch' in German is pronounced 'Yo-han Hee-er-ssh'. )**

"Hm. Figures." he said, double-clicking on 'attach-files'. Johan Hirsch was the company's official German translator, and everything German that Seto himself didn't deal with, he dealt with, and Seto normally did it on the days when Herr Hirsch was not at work. Unfortunately, Helen, Seto's green haired boffin-like yet incredibly efficient PA, spoke English, French, Spanish and Mandarin, but not German. Not that Siegfried didn't know this. Call Helen on Thursday mornings or Saturday afternoons and he would automatically be put straight through, because there was no Herr Hirsch.

"_Oh, and did you get drunk in the Bahamas recently by any chance?_"

Seto choked on his sip of coffee. "WHAT???"

"_Well, I dunno, it's just that I swear I saw you yesterday._"

"I didn't come in yesterday."

"_Tell me about it._"

Seto paused. "So what was the 'drunk in the Bahamas' comment in aid of?"

"_It may have been my colour sensors being weird. It's just I swear I saw you, only for a few seconds, and my colour sensors depicted that your skin tone was a few shades darker than usual._"

Seto froze. His face paled and his palms began to feel damp. "It's your colour sensors." he lied quickly, "That explains the Bahamas. So why would I have been drunk?"

"_Ahem, attire. That was a funky hat... Are you alright Seto?_"

Seto clenched his fists and began to vent poisonous fumes. "How many times do I have to tell you _not _to call me that???!!!"

The Computer would have smirked if it had lips. "_I'm a computer. Whattya gonna do? Unplug me???_"

Seto began to lower his head to the desk, but looked up as she/it answered. "No, but I _could_ disable your CPU."

"_NOOOOOOO!!!_" Seto had to cover his ears for the duration of this outburst, "_I'll be brain-dead!!!_"

"That's a point. Hmm..." he tapped his fingers together in a way that said 'I'm an evil scheming businessman', "I'll turn your volume right down, so I can still use you, but you can't annoy me. You can't you can't you _can't_!"

"_You're crushing my soul._"

"I really don't care." he said, shuffling through papers and moving some into the out-tray. "Load my inbox."

"_Which folder?_"

"All." he said, as the Computer typed and the password, which was made up out of gibberish, numbers and punctuation.

"_I've deleted those in 'Bulk', and some of those timewasters in 'Public Relations', but you do have a new promo to give the thumbs up or down to, but that's little. So, starting with 'Sales', monthly reports from all seven main international branches in, I'll send those to the laser and back-up 'em up, then in 'Stock', we have orders from the regulars to be read, allowed or disallowed, and the sent to be processed, none in 'Manufacture', I guess all's good there, 'Media' is surprisingly good today. They're laying off you because of something Deutsche Robotische Mechanik are doing, someone had an affair with someone else, and it's a bit messy at the moment, anyway they're swamping the poor buggars over there right now. And, you have one in 'Personal'._"

Seto frowned. "Open it."

"_Sure._"

The Computer opened a new window and loaded the e-mail. It read from Seto,

_Mokuba gave me your address. I just haven't spoken to you in a while, getting hold of you is so difficult, with Joey and all, and it's always easier to hide behind writing. And that feels like what I'm doing. I just don't know where I stand with you, where we stand. I have these butterflies in my stomach that make me feel sick every time I see you, or even hear your name. I know you don't like loveydovey. I have to see you. I just feel I might be letting you down and hurting you if I'm not trying enough for us. I couldn't live with that. We have to find a way to see each other, not seeing you is driving me crazy. Meet me at the far end of the orchard today at seven. _

_I love you,_

_'Ren XxX' _

There was a thud as Seto's head hit the desk.

"Damnit!!!"

"_Why 'damnit', Seto? You just got a message from your girlfriend_."

"She's not my girlfriend."

The answer came out of Seto's mouth like a packet of sweets falls out of the vending-machine after a certain code has been punched in, and he inwardly cursed himself for letting it. This vending-machine effect was controlling almost everything he said. However, the Computer knew exactly which codes to punch in, and when technical errors occured.

"_Oh __really__? Last week's webcam begs to differ. You honestly think I didn't notice you two sucking on each others' faces like the Apocalypse was tomorrow? I mean wow! Talk about condensation on the LCD screen!!! But let's get one thing straight: I was on your desk first!!! Okay???_"

Seto felt his cheeks warm. "Wh... What?"

"_So were you drunk? 'Cause..._"

Seto finished her trail of thought. "And we're back to the 'drunk in the Bahamas'..."

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Serenity let her weight fall against the rough yet comforting bark of the nearest apple tree as she let out a sigh of exasperation. She ran her hand through her fringe apprehensively. She was so kidding herself. She honestly didn't know what was going on. His kisses had never seemed fake, nor the sweet nothings he whispered in her ear, but recently he had been, well, they hadn't talked face to face for a while. He was the last person on Earth she had expected to fall in love with, and she couldn't quite explain it. And what surprised her more was that he had returned her feelings. That to her was strange. She would have expected him to commit suicide before showing symptoms of having feelings for anyone other than himself and his little brother, yet no, he seemed to be equally in love with her. Joey had told her it was suspicious, and even then, she thought it better only to fill him in on the slightest, most minor of details.

She checked her watch.

6:57pm.

She looked around. No sign yet. Why didn't she just go to his office, like she did last time? That would have made more sense, but she wanted to be, on her turf, so to speak. And she didn't want to be seen leaving Kaiba Corporation's HQ building - the media was evil, and she didn't want to be identified as his wife, or worse, a whore of some kind.

6:59pm.

Why did she feel like she was in the Big Brother House at that moment?

Three...

Two...

One...

"Serenity?"

A chain of apple blossoms suddenly left the tree behind her in a gust of wind and blew across the orchard. She almost didn't hear the voice. She flicked her hair out of her eyes and turned around to see a human speck in the flurry of pink blossom. The speck came closer, every step it took crunching softly in the thick layer of apple blossoms that had fallen from the trees.

"I'm sorry Serenity..." Seto Kaiba's face becoming distinguishable as he said the words.

She took a few steps towards him. "Why are you sorry?"

"I'm the reason you're confused. This... Us... It's going to be difficult..."

She hung her head. "I understand..."

"No!" he said, stepping up to her and putting his hands on her shoulders, "I understand that I can't put this on hold because I have other things on my mind... And... It would probably be better for both of us... If... If we didn't see each other again." he drew her into an embrace as he saw tears begin to leak out of her eyes, "But..." he said, taking a fresh tone, "I couldn't bear to do that."

She looked up at him confusedly and sniffed. "Wh... What?"

"I don't really know why... And I've been confused myself because I can't trust people. But I can't help... Not this..."

"I'm sorry if I scared you..."

"I scared myself."

"But you are scared that you might get hurt." she said, and mentally nodded to herself as he looked down and then to the side guiltily, "I won't hurt you, Seto."

"I have something for you." he said, taking out the pendant, "Well, Seth gave it to me to give to you, he said it was important that you get it. I think I know what it is."

She gasped and eyed it warily, like it was too beautiful to touch. "It's beautiful... But, what do you think it is?"

"I think it's a Charter Seal." he said, "I think Seth made it to act like the Millennium Items."

"Huh?"

"It doesn't have evil in it, and it doesn't have any Magical side effects, seeing as it's Charter spelled, I think, but otherwise it will be like holding a Millennium Item, except that it won't react to other Items when they're activated."

"So?"

"Take a wild guess." he replied slyly, and she bit her lip, having received the message.

"I can deal with it." she said, before throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him like there was no tomorrow. There were not words to describe how happy she was at that moment. She could even have been kidding herself into believing that she was flying, indeed, her feet had left the floor as he had fastened his arms around her slim waist and lifted her clean off the floor, spinning her around. Both of them had started laughing their heads off in sheer bliss. It felt strange to finally hear him laugh - like the feeling you get when you just know everything is going to go your way for once in your life.

"You'll get dizzy!!!" she struggled to say through fits of laughter as his feet made a trail through the deep layer of blossom that covered the ground in a fluffy pale pink carpet.

"No I won't!!!"

"Yes you will!!!"

"I won't!!!"

"You..."

Both of them laughed harder and she held onto him tighter as he continued to spin. Seto suddenly felt his knees begin to buckle as a distinct lack of oxygen became apparent in his head. It looked to him like his vision was an image which was being rotated around on it's side. He felt a thud, and a dull ache in his left shoulder-blade and back, but it wasn't half as painful as the heaving of his abdomen and the beating of his heart.

Serenity screamed as she realised that he was spiralling to the ground, and had to spit out a mouthfull of blossom in order to get her next words past her lips. "Just did!!!"

Their laughter began to quell slowly as deep breaths and longing took over. She was on top of him, her right hand deeply entwined in his soft chocolate brown hair, with his arms holding her tightly to him. For someone so cold, his body was so so warm. Slowly, she leant down to kiss him, and he strained his neck up in anticipation, longing to feel that sweetness again. He began to realise that his own personal pleasure, no matter how wonderful it was, was not the main source of his feelings. He was beginning to understand that every fibre of his being wanted to give her everything, to make her happy, to increase her pleasure, and only then could he care about himself. Her pleasure was his.

"Let's have a movie night-in sometime." she said, pulling away gently.

Seto let his head fall back onto the soft blossoms. "Yeah..."

"Hm... Have you ever seen the Blackadder series?"

He searched his brain briefly. "Nope."

She giggled. "I didn't think so. It's a British sitcom thing that's quite old now, but it's the funniest I've ever seen."

"With Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie?"

"Yeah that's the one! I haven't watched it in ages..." her voice became quieter, "Do you wanna see that?"

He smiled gently. "Sure. It'll have to be my house though."

She grinned. "Yeah, come to think of it, Joey might just skin you alive."

"I'll call you about it." he said, his right hand reaching up to stroke her hair, and gently lowering her to his lips again. Love and passion seared, wrapping themselves securely around the young couple, tying them together in an impossible, inescapable knot.

And so the blossoms fell.

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**WildEm: Aw... Sweet... Of course I don't mind hearing it from you guys. I chose Blackadder because it is hilariously funny and I thought that with Seto and Seren something funny would probably be romantic, and Seto needs a good laugh lol. I don't mind if you guys suggest something else, but, just know this, Churchill does **_**my **_**car insurance!!!**

**Churchill: Oh, yes! **


	12. Everywhere the glint of gold'

**A CEO Scorned**

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**WildEm: Hiya guys, sorry this has taken a while. I've been mega busy, as well as having writer's block. This is pretty short, but still very funny. I'm so proud of the Computer's "it's about as convincing as" gag. Next chappie, Kaiba goes on his date, so I'm currently getting him to switch outfits to see what looks best.**

**Seto: Look, I'm on my break, okay?**

**WildEm: You can't look like a complete idiot. **

**Atem: I concur.**

**Seto: Let us not forget which one of us is wearing the mini-skirt.**

**WildEm: ... He has a point you know... Guys, I need more reviews! I don't get it! I also need ideas as to where you think this fic should now go. Heck I'm not sure. Any ideas are welcome. PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!!!**

**Churchill does my car insurance. Ain't that right Churchill?**

**Churchill: Oooooh yes.**

**WildEm: Give the dog a phone.**

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**"Everywhere the glint of gold."**

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_SLAM..._

"_Alright alright don't get your knickers in a twist!_"

The Computer simulated the undeserving victim attitude as Seto stormed into his office with the force of a galeforce nine hurricane and slammed the door with the same force that had caused the door hinges to be replaced twice already this month.

"Computer?" Seto spat angrily, practically launching himself at his chair.

"_Yeah?_"

"Zip it."

"_Zip what?_"

"Urgh!!!" he kicked the underside of the desk violently, causing everything upon it to rattle.

"_Ooh! The vibrations! The vibrations!!!_" the Computer complained, her screen flickering for a second, "_You'll damage my hardware if there's too much more of that mister!!!_" Seto cradled his head in his hands, "_Yeah and you'll have a much bigger migraine after your girlfriend's whacked you over the head with her handbag when you invite her to your house with a temper like that on you. And don't try pulling the 'I'm not a morning-person' one, it's about as convincing as the time Mokuba tried to make the technical staff down in PR believe you wanted them to order a McDonalds for the five-thousand._"

Seto looked up at the screen, and swallowed a lump in his throat as a wave of Magic pulsed through him. "How the _Hell_ do you know that???!!!" he demanded, referring to that fact that he had a date that evening.

The Computer would have shrugged. "_I didn't. According to my colour sensors, you just turned a shade of red at the mention of the word 'girlfriend'. Oh and your behaviour is off today. Here:_" she said as if to say 'well duh'. On the word 'here', the top draw of his desk popped open - they were locked by the Computer when he wasn't there and at night, so she could open them too - "_Have a couple of these._" she said.

Seto reached into the draw and smiled inwardly as a packet of Paracetamol Plus fell on it's side due to the inertia from the draw opening. He pulled them out and began to open them, his fingers fumbled with the ridiculously 'difficult-to-open' packet...

And then stopped.

It could just have been him being paranoid, he had been feeling like that a lot for these past few days, or it could just have been a daytime hallucination from having been looking at the computer screen for a bit too long and his eyes were just adjusting to the difference in light. Whatever it was, Seto could have sworn that he had just seen a glint of gold. He thought about dismissing it and slamming the draw shut again, but then again, paranoia was becoming something, as the Abhorsen, he was learning to trust, and he didn't want to take any chances with anything.

He leant down in his chair, so that his eyes were level with the floor of the draw, and peered into it with the same shock that Howard Carter had peered into Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. Although this discovery was not quite one to celebrate, in Seto's opinion, it certainly was worthy of the use of the quote 'everywhere the glint of gold'. Why couldn't he get rid of this thing? It was like it followed him everywhere. And the Computer had said that she had seen him the day before yesterday and detected a darker skin tone...

Seto's stomach protested as he wondered if Seth could move the Rod to wherever he so pleased. It wouldn't exactly be a surprise to him, and his hand found it's way to his turtleneck collar where the little silver cross-keys was stitched. Tentatively, his other hand reached for the handle of the Rod. It was pleasingly cool to the touch, and the sheer power of it made him feel confident and relaxed. It felt like just holding it in his hand was opening up his mind, and that he automatically knew all it's powers, quirks, and dangers. He then began to feel like there was a lack of oxygen to his brain, no matter how deeply he breathed. He found that he couldn't drop it - he didn't want to drop it, but would it make him suffocate? The Computer's pleas to know if he was alright went completely unnoticed as he began to feel dizzy, and the familiar surroundings of his office began to blur and distort...

Suddenly, it all stopped. Just as he felt he was going to pass out it stopped. He cradled his forehead with one hand and used the hand with the Rod in to also hold the edge of his desk firmly. Just as he thought he felt alright again and straightened up again, an all too familiar voice spoke up from the back of his head...

"**Hello hikari.**"

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Meanwhile...

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"You _have got _to be kidding!!!!!"

Péséraelle had turned an almost comical shade of colour when Mahado explained to her that the Magic he displayed on the battlefield was far from a holographic effect - well, when he did it anyway. He had, as safely as he could, proven most of them. With the slight exception of the more dangerous attacks. He had to chuckle when she had turned an even funnier shade of pale when he had told her that she could do some too. She clearly still hadn't remembered all of her past life, even if she did remember him.

"No." said Mahado, sitting down beside her on her bed. He thought about putting his arms around her and holding her close, but he knew that now was not the best time, "I am not. You can."

"I'm a _medical_ student!"

"And?" he chuckled.

"_Aaaand_..." she despaired, "I don't even believe in that stuff! It's completely silly for me to even try it!"

Silently, he raised her hand from her lap and placed it flat over his beating heart. She suddenly realised her mistake.

"Then do you not believe me to be real?"

She felt like her stomach had just imploded and unintendedly let her fingers clasp the soft silky fabric of his tunic. "No! Of course not!!! I..." she looked away for a split second, while her mind formulated an answer, "I just thought it had limitations. I'm so sorry Mahado..."

"It doesn't." he replied, "I have taught you some of this before."

"So go on then..." she said, although she was unable to raise her voice as much as she would have liked, he was having that effect on her, "What can I do?"

"If I remember correctly, your powers are Thought Projection, Levitation, Clairaudience, and Claircognizance. That's why you were able to hear me on the battlefield with Yugi, when no one else could, and that is also why you retained the knowledge of the Egyptian language. You have the ability to know things before they happen, and tap into the knowledge of present spirits, you also have the power to hear things before they happen, and hear spirits. You can make your thoughts come to life via Thought Projection, and you can Levitate."

"I never believed in that." she whispered, leaning her head against his shoulder, letting him hold her gently, "Not before. It scares me to think that there could be anything out there that Science can't explain."

"There is Science involved, to a certain degree." he said, "And yet it is so much more interesting to thereby explain what Science cannot."

Péséraelle smiled and snuggled close to him. "Come back with me..."

"Where?" he whispered.

"To Paris. So I can finish my exams and graduate. It's so beautiful there you can't even imagine, Mahado! It's the most romantic city in the world! If I agree to learn Magic, will you come back with me? ... Please?"

He pulled her closer to whisper in her ear. "I would go through Duat and back if you asked me to."

A pause.

"Yasut?"

"Tieu."

Péséraelle felt her spirit soar, and turned around so she could kiss him passionately as she could. he broke it for a few seconds, seemingly drowning in the moment. "I love you so much Peseshet." he breathed, his arms locking around her as they toppled over sideways.

"I love you too, Mahado."

£

£

"Okay..." said Mai inthusiastically, throwing back the doors to Serenity's wardrobe, "Let's see what we've got here."

"It hasn't gotta be too flashy Mai." Serenity said, "I mean, it's just a housedate."

"Who's the lucky guy?" she asked, the sound of scraping hangers on the rail the only sound to accompany her voice, "Tristan? Duke?"

Serenity gave a smile that although intended to be knowing, contained a hint of annoyance. "You know it's Seto, Mai."

Mai's hand stopped on the rails and turned around to face her friend as if she had just unintentionally condemned her to death. "Oh 'hon," she said, sitting down beside her, "I'm sorry, it's just, I can't for the life of me imagine such a sweet girl like you going out with Kaiba. He hardly seems like your type."

Serenity smiled. "I know." she mused, fiddling with her dragon pendant, "And that's why we do work. And hello? At least I am going out with a guy! Joey hasn't even asked you out yet!!!"

Mai didn't even blush. She just folded her arms and grinned. "Oh here we go..."

Serenity giggled. "Trust me, he really likes you."

"Really now?"

"Well he looks at you every frickin' time he can get away with it!"

"I never noticed..." she trailed sarcastically.

"Well it's not like he notices either," Serenity played along, "I mean, it's like he's in a trance and he doesn't know what he's doing and then he snaps out of it. But never when you're looking. I don't think even he's stupid enough for that. Not like Tristan and Duke. Nice blokes and everything, but way, way too obvious."

"Yeah..." Mai's eyes widened as they landed on the pendant. "Wow!" she said, "That's gorgeous! Did Kaiba give it to you?"

"Yeah." she half-lied, "D'you think he was trying to say something there?"

"On the bright side, if you marry him, you can divorce him six months later and get half his money."

"Don't start!"

£

£

"Damn you damn you damn you damn you damn you!!!!!!!!"

**"Osiris did."**

"I thought I made it clear I didn't want a god-damn yami!!!"

**"You had."**

"HOW THE BLOODY HELL COULD THIS HAVE GONE WRONG???!!!"

Seto heard a mental sigh. **"I know that, in the land of fairies and puppydog tails where you grew up if not, then spent most of your summers, self-denial is something that you can wish for a little pixie to come and take away in return for petty coins, but, and here is the real plot twist, you are in the real world now! Alright?" **Seth's cooing was more annoying by the second.

"No... No... No... No... No... This is all wrong..."

**"You are wrong, hikari, this is right."**

"I can't deal with this!!! I just can't!!!"

**"Why not?"** Seth asked, **"You deal with everything else life and, as Abhorsen, Death, can throw at you. Why not this?"**

"This is different."

**"This is because of some silly disagreements you've had with my cousin."**

"And?"

"**And? You are not even going to try?"**

There was a pause, in which Seto tried to think, but was at a loss for thoughts. It was like he was thinking of everything, and the philosophical idea that everything was also nothing was coming true. It was like his mind was a blank sheet of paper on which he was writing with invisible ink. What was he going to do? A yami was the last thing he wanted. Although still, Seth... Seth was no fool, did not suffer fools and did not mind telling them so. Would Seth cause him trouble? Unlikely. In all honesty, he and Seth would probably be as thick as thieves, but it was not Seth that bothered him.

It was the fact that he had fought against Ishizu and Yugi and his gang on the Destiny topic, and lost.

Lost...

Seto liked winning. He liked that feeling of exhilaration it gave him when he had reason to be proud. Despite his childhood, he was still a highly consciencious, high-flying person. Losing had the opposite effect. It made him feel worthless. It made him second-guess himself, and of course, if he saw something out of the corner of his eye, or thought he heard a noise behind him, for an amout of time afterwards, a bolt of fear would shoot through him and set every nerve on fire. His muscles would tense in anticipation of incredible pain from a blow from a cane, ruler, suitcase, or the back of a hand. His ears would push out air in order to protect themselves from a searing and terrifying roar, and his eyes would screw shut in dread as the one second slowly, slowly passed in which the body realised it had been hit and pain began to tear him apart.

And, when he was younger, that was when an image of his parents would involuntarily appear in his mind. Like they were there, but he couldn't reach them. Like he would beg them to help him, but they couldn't come.

And, when he was older, that was when an image of his parents would involuntarily appear in his mind. Like they were there, but he couldn't reach them. Like he would beg them to help him, but they couldn't come.

And then he would open his eyes, and try once more to forget about everything that losing caused him to feel. Why he wiped his heart of emotion, and was left in the cold.

And that was why he always won.

£

£

Later that day, Seto found himself in Yugi's living room again, this time sat on the same sofa as the midget, with Péséraelle between them. Atem was standing, his face a picture as Mahado knelt before him.

"My Pharaoh, it is an honour." he said.

"Get up, please, Mahado, how many more times must I ask you to call me Atem?"

Mahado got to his feet. "Once more, my Pharaoh, as always."

"Look! I... Insist!!! Please! Please, we are friends. You are too respectful of me by far. I don't want to be your King, I want to be your friend! Please!"

A smile tugged at Mahado's lips. "As you wish my Ph... Atem."

Seth, who showed no signs of bowing whatsoever, gave a trace of a smile, which flickered on and off like a broken lightbulb. He was now wearing clothes like Seto's, except that his trenchcoat was black with silver detail, and he was armed - bearing two silver trident daggers in holsters around his shins. And he was as solid as a wall.

Atem concealed a light feeling of happiness as he saw his cousin's dependable expression. His eyes narrowed a tiny bit and he smiled. Seth would die before he bowed to him. "And look who else has joined us in the land of the living." he said, smirking.

Seth then smiled genuinely. "I could not leave you in charge for too long, could I my cousin? Honestly, leave things with you for two minutes and the world nearly ends!!! You are about as dependable as Isis."

"I'm not that bad, surely?"

Seth's eyes widened and he nodded slowly so as to really state the obvious. "Yes you are. No matter..."

"So have we found anything for him to wear?" asked Yugi cheerfully.

"Yeah, I've got a friend who's about the same height and build as him so I've gotta go around to his this evening and collect some of his stuff." Elizaveta informed them.

"Remember what I told you about household appliances." he replied, "Atem thought the cheesegrater was some kind of murder weapon and killed it."

"I resent that. I thought it was a torture instrument."

"That cheesegrater is still now unuseable!" Yugi protested.

Seth's lip pursed. "See what I mean?"

Seto looked annoyed. "Try to stay with the gist here!" he said irritatedly.

Péséraelle looked lightly unimpressed and raised her eyebrows. "Alright." she injected, "We have a limited amount of time. I have to be back in Paris by the end of the month..."

"And I said that I would go back with her."

"Huh?" they all said as Mahado spoke up for the first time.

"But..." Atem began.

"Ancient Egyptian magician or not," Seth interrupted, "Mahado is without a hikari, and may go wherever he so wishes. So that gives us a week."

"To do what? Teach him French?"

Seth briefly grinned. "I should wish. No."

"So what exactly are we teaching him?"

A pause.

"How 'bout we visit the kitchen and start from there?"

£

£


	13. Majority Wins

**_A CEO Scorned..._**

* * *

**Me: OMG I KNOW IT'S BEEN ALMOST 3 YEARS!!!!! Yes yes I know how shitty I've been not to update this, and I can't tell you when there'll be another chapter, but here is the next piece of rubbish… R&R!**

**Any ideas to advance and tie up the plot are appreciated!!!**

* * *

"So, all that was supposed, to, frighten me?"

Mahado looked somewhat disdained as his tour of the Kaiba household drew to a finish. They had decided to go back to Kaiba's house, as he had more scary technology there than Yugi did in his house and Mahado was going to be staying there, after all. Seth looked equally bored and Elizaveta yawned loudly. Mahado and Péséraelle looked at each other briefly, and then to the floor - they had been enjoying their little moment, before Elizaveta had knocked on the door to get them for this tour.

"Look, it's got to be done, people react to it differently." Nina explained, waving her tail around in the air.

Elizaveta looked at her watch. "Oh, I gotta go get those clothes for Mahado" she said, giving him a clap on the shoulder as she said his name and strode past the others down the massive staircase.

"Alright, see you in a bit." Nina replied, jumping up onto the banister and purring loudly, "And that pretty much concludes the bulk of the tour."

"I am bored!" said Seth, holding his hand over his mouth as he yawned.

"You think dinner will be served yet?" said Mokuba, placing a hand over his rumbling stomach. "I'm starving!"

"You're all going out for dinner tonight. Mokuba." said Seto in a very parent-to-child way.

Mokuba suddenly perked up. "Really?"

"Yep, you're all going to the cinema afterwards too."

"What film is it?"

Seto shrugged. "Not a clue." he said, "I asked Roberts to book it."

"You're coming right?"

Seto looked down at his pitiful-looking brother. "Sorry, I can't."

"Why not Seto? Would it kill you to have some fun for _once_???"

"No, and that is the point." he said, jogging back up the stairs.

Mokuba looked confused for a moment, before it seemed to hit him. "Hey... Wait... Seto!!! What's that supposed to mean???!!!" he yelled after his retreating brother, before proceeding to chase him up the stairs.

"Well..." said Nina, "Er... Welcome?"

Seto ran to his room and slammed the door behind him, holding all his weight against it. He laughed hard as Mokuba tried to break it down, the little thuds shoving his heels into the thick carpet.

"Seto!!!" Mokuba yelled, banging on the door, "Seto open this door now!!!"

"No!" he shouted back.

"Seto if you don't open this door now I'm going straight to your office and switching on the paper-shredder..."

Seto paled slightly, and opened the door, allowing a victorious Mokuba to stride through the door as if the room was his own. "Ah," he sighed, "works every time."

"What do you want from me now?" Seto asked annoyedly as his little brother threw himself down on the bed and lay on his stomach.

"Where are you going?" he asked, innocently enough, but Seto knew him better.

"Out." he said.

Mokuba chuckled. "Yeah..." he said, "You don't go out."

Seto mentally slapped himself. "I do now."

"Cute. What changed?"

"You know full well."

"Are you going out with Serenity?"

"I'm going to fetch Serenity."

"She's coming here? Since when?"

"Since I asked her." he mentally slapped himself again, it had been her that asked him.

Mokuba raised an eyebrow. "And so what are the rest of us going to do when there are noises coming from your room? Because I have a Maths test tomorrow..."

Seto shot him a death-glare. "Which is why you are all going out for the evening. Food, then cinema."

Mokuba's eyes lit up. "Yes!!! My innocent eyes remain unblighted!!!" He blinked, "Wait... We're gonna take Mahado... To the cinema...? You think he'll cope with that?"

Seto's lip tightened. "Only one way to find out."

* * *

"So, wait, you sent them to the cinema?"

Seto nodded. "Yep."

Serenity narrowed her hazel eyes as she lent against him in the back of his rather posh limo. "Even Nina?"

"Well, no, I had to do something about her."

"Which would be?"

"Put her in Elizaveta's bag. She was keen to go too. So I told her to button up and keep quiet."

"Does Elizaveta know this?"

"No."

Serenity giggled and put her hand to the Blue-Eyes-White Dragon pendant around her neck.

* * *

"I still can't believe that Nina gave us a room with a double bed... Hang on... Actually, yes, I can." Péséraelle said surprisedly. She supposed Nina thought they might have wanted one, but she was still unsure about how she felt. When he was close to her, when he had touched her, when he had kissed her, she felt like she had known him for years, had feelings for him for years. But apart from those moments, he seemed like a random figure that she had only just met that day and barely knew. Of course and knowing that technically the latter was true wasn't helping.

He chuckled. "I guess so." he said, loosening the clothes that felt so strange to him. She opened and dug around in her bag for her pyjamas, and went into the ensuite bathroom to change. By the time she had changed, removed her make-up and padded out of the ensuite in her pyjamas, Mahado was already under the covers, lightly stroking the silk of the pillow with his fingertips.

She watched him do this for a moment, before sliding into her side of the bed. He was naked, she presumed. She doubted that they wore pyjamas in Ancient Egypt, and also that Elizaveta had thought to bring him any. It didn't bother her. That _'oh my god there's a naked man next to me' _thought did not even so much as come to the back of her mind. Such silly pathetic childish thoughts were below her. She had grown out of them in her teens. If she'd ever had them anyway. She had always been mature and practical. He was a man. It wasn't like he was an alien.

"It feels so odd." he said quietly, looking at her with honest eyes, "Being human again. Breathing again. Feeling again. Eating drinking sleeping tasting thinking walking again."

She smiled. "It must be weird." she said, "All of this feels so weird. I feel strange around you."

"Why?"

"When I'm near you, I feel like I know you, like I've known you for a long time, but when I see across a room, you feel like a stranger. I'm just confused." she admitted.

"What do you feel now?" he asked gently.

She swallowed. "I feel glad, glad that you're here, and that I can talk to you, about this without you thinking I'm weak or deranged."

"What am I to you now? At this moment?"

"I know you." she said simply.

He nodded, and leaning towards her slightly, planted a kiss on a soft spot on her neck. She involuntarily gasped as it sent a shiver right through her, changing her instantly from Péséraelle to Peseshet. She felt an explosion of something in her heart, and turned from her back to her left side,

"Beautiful silk." she said, "Kaiba's gotta be rolling in it."

"Pun intended?"

"No, well, not yet anyway." she said as Mahado chuckled softly. Randomly, she started speaking in Ancient Egyptian, "What? Did Seth sleep with Kisara?"

He nodded. "Yes." he replied in his native tongue, "I couldn't say how many times though."

"Oh..." she trailed, "And, did we ever..."

He took his time to answer. "Yes." he breathed.

"Was it any good?"

Mahado smiled, looking to the side and back at her again. "Yes."

They lay there for a moment, just looking at each other. Péséraelle, in a moment of thinking _'should I do this?', _and then _'Eh, why not?', _snuggled up to him and kissed him gently, wrapping her one arm around his neck, and the other around his shoulder. At this, Mahado felt a surge of passion, and along with it, a surge of power. Their kiss became deeper and Mahado's arms circled her waist. The smallest touch left a trace of fire over wherever it landed, each one seemingly transforming the simple initial want into powerful involuntary need. As she let him roll on top of her slowly and wrapped her legs around his waist, items that were not held down to any particular surface began to vibrate and lift off their resting places. The light on the bedside table got brighter and brighter until the bulb blew, leaving them in the dark as he tugged with building desire at her pyjamas. From then on for a few moments, on and off, when Péséraelle opened her eyes, she thought she could see Egyptian decor in the room, those silk sheets turning every so often from their normal blue, to pure white for a while, and then back to blue again.

* * *

"Good morning."

"Well would you look who's late for breakfast?!" Mokuba grinned, splashing milk just about anywhere except his cereal. Without looking up from her paper, Elizaveta raised a hand and pushed the milk carton back over the bowl, before the contents went all over the table. "Oh, hehe, sorry." Mokuba briefly out the milk at the centre of attention before replacing it on the table and slamming into the food with his spoon. Out of all the breakfasts on the table, Molkuba just didn't fancy the others, and when I say breakfasts, there were many. Seto loved European food, especially French and German. It was a change from the normal and he remembered how happy he used to be abroad, sent there for a few weeks maybe, with Mokuba, and away from Gozaburo. Hence the table was always laid with things from their European sanctuary. There were things for a German breakfast, like Brötchen, which were little bread rolls, and other types of German bread, along with cold meats, cheese and jam. There was also an English breakfast, fried sliced bread with fried tomatoes, bacon, eggs, and sausages. Then of course, the French breakfast, with brioches, croissants, many types of jam, honey, nutella. Seto, who was multitasking, checking his early-morning e-mails on his laptop, whilst drinking a cup of coffee and eating a Brötchen, gave a small contribution to the conversation in the form of a flicker of his eyes from above the laptop screen.

"We're doing just fine this morning, thank you for asking Mokuba." Péséraelle smiled, running a hand through her dark hair as she and Mahado took their seats at the table.

"Morning guys, sleep well?" said Elizaveta, chucking the paper onto the side and doing her best to look cheery, which was actually rather good. She looked like a morning person.

Mahado looked normal at this comment, but Péséraelle looked away from Elizaveta's eye contact for a moment. Elizaveta blinked slyly, stirred her tea and deliberately rapped the spoon on the edge of the mug, shocking the Frenchwoman back into the real world.

"Or not, perhaps." she corrected. Péséraelle gave her a look that to the rest of the company said 'WTF' but in hidden women's code really meant 'okay, you got me'. Elizaveta thought as much. Parisian Péséraelle was not one to be off with the fairies, so to speak, but this morning she seemed to be doing just that. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes were sparkling more than usual, despite the fact that she was not a morning person and was looking like she was just coming down from the peak of a sugar-high, and that she seemed to believe that her coffee mug was a good substitute for a safety screen. _"He must be good."_ she thought. Turning her attention to the man in question, he too looked as fresh as a daisy, an air of contentedness that was so seldom seen at nine in the morning.

Seto shut his laptop and pushed it away from him as he finished his Brötchen, pouring himself yet more coffee.

"Oh, Kaiba, can I check my e-mails very quickly?" Péséraelle asked.

Seto gave a slow jerk of his head, which was understood to mean 'yes', and she gently picked up the sacred item and opened it up. She hit a few keys with her fingertips, and then scanned the screen with her eyes darting from side to side. Her face seemed to sadden somewhat, as though someone had just given her bad news.

She sighed. "They want me back in Paris." she said, "I can't miss anymore of this term, otherwise I won't be able to catch up."

"I thought you were here over your half-term." said Seto.

"I am but I'm over-running." she explained, "I have to be back in the Sorbonne by Monday."

"What the Hell?" said Mokuba, "You expect to get tickets now for a flight which departs, say, Saturday morning? Are you stupid? They'll have sold out."

Péséraelle nodded and cupped her face in her hands, while Seto's lower lip tightened.

"You think she'll get one?" asked Mokuba.

He pulled the paper towards him and opened it. "Not cheaply I don't."

"I can't afford a last minute flight." she said, looking up from her palms.

Mokuba, who sat with his head tilted to the side, came out of his miniature trance. "I have an idea."

"Seto cut him off, flicking the paper over so as to make a sharp eye-contact. "Forget it."

Elizaveta spoke up. "You have far too many responsibilities as it is."

The comment was directed at Seto rather than at Mokuba.

"Why are you still here?" Seto asked her.

"Why are you such a lousy Abhorsen?"

"We've had this conversation."

"No we haven't."

_"She's right you know hikari, you are a lousy Abhorsen."_

"Shut up Seth!"

"Aw Seto please can we all go to Paris?"

"Mokuba I'm not sending you to Paris just so you can miss that Maths test."

Mokuba looked as though he had been foiled. "Damn it!"

"Hands up..." said Elizaveta, "Who wants slash needs to get to Paris?" she raised her own hand, as did Péséraelle, Mahado, Mokuba, and Nina, who raised a paw.

"You don't count Nina you're a cat."

Seth raised his hand from the back of Seto's mind.

"Seth doesn't count either."

"Majority wins." Said Elizaveta.

"Why do you all want to go? I can understand Péséraelle and Mahado but why the rest of you?" he put his hands on his hips, "I suppose it'd be because Mokuba has a Maths test today, Elizaveta skives because she actually doesn't give a crap about what's left of her normal life, and everyone else is trying to piss me off."

Nine nodded. "Yep."

Elizaveta rubbed her palms together. "To Paris we go." Seto looked like he was about to explode. "Give him a minute, when he explodes we can use his credit cards to book the flights."

"Funny."

* * *

**R&R!!!**


End file.
